The Wallace Fountains
Wallace Fountains of Paris have been dispensing clean drinking water to residents and visitors for 150…
Sir Richard was a philanthropist and a great connoisseur of art , of which he acquired a valuable collection that became the "Wallace Collection" in London. It was bequeathed to the British nation by Sir Richard's widow, Lady Wallace, in 1897, following his death in 1890. The collection is displayed at Hertford House, one of the family's London properties in the nineteenth century.
Sir Richard Wallace achieved fame during the during the Franco-Prussian War and the great siege of Paris (1870/71) for his notable acts of charity, which included providing medical care for the citizens and ensuring that they had access to clean water. Many of his water fountains, "les fontaines Wallace", erected in 1870, can still be seen to this day.
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In summary
Built between 1872 and 1879
«The Hertford British Hospital was
founded in 1871by Sir Richard
Wallace for the medical and surgical
treatment of "indigent and sick
British nationals in and around
Paris". It was named after his father,
the 4th Marquess of Hertford.»
During the two World Wars, the hospital was used principally for military purposes and, after evacuation in 1940, came successively under the protection of the Swiss Embassy, the French Croix Rouge and the British Red Cross.
The hospital closed in 1952, re-opening in 1957, with enlarged and modernised buildings, as a military hospital for SHAPE (NATO Headquarters). It was run by the Royal Army Medical Corps and staffed by the Queen Alexandra Royal Nursing Corps.
In 1961, it returned to the civilian sector.
In 1966, a new charity – the Hertford British Hospital Corporation, Paris, or HBHC - was created to manage the hospital and receive an additional building from the British government (since sold). However, the hospital continued to face financial difficulty and was eventually contracted into the French state health scheme in 1977 whilst remaining a private, non-profit charity. Faced with the challenge of dilapidated buildings, most of which dated from the hospital's foundation in 1871, the governing body of HBHC worked with the British Ambassador to France and British Embassy staff to raise funds to rebuild it.
Through the intervention of Simone Veil, the then French Minister of Health, a grant was made to the hospital that enabled the construction of a new building at 3 rue Barbès in Levallois-Perret (in the grounds of the original Wallace hospital). The new site was inaugurated in 1982 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, its faithful Patron since 1937, and a role she kept until her death in 2002.
Over the next few years, there were many changes:
For those seeking to learn more about Sir Richard Wallace and the history of the Hertford British Hospital,
one of HBCF’s previous Trustees, the late Peter Howard, has written a complete history of the Hospital, entitled "Sir Richard Wallace - Le Millionaire Anglais de Paris - and The Hertford British Hospital." The book is published by the Grimsay Press.
It is also possible to obtain a “Brief History of HBCF”, a booklet published by the Charity by below.
Wallace Fountains of Paris have been dispensing clean drinking water to residents and visitors for 150…
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