Royal Hospital Linen League

The Royal Hospital Linen League was inaugurated by Miss Jane Read and a few friends in 1911. Between 1911 and 1948, when the Royal Portsmouth Hospital became part of the NHS, gifts of money and linen worth more than £10,000 were contributed to the care of patients.

The Matron addressing the annual meeting in 1948 gave the following tribute, ‘You have done a grand job. It has not been an easy task to undertake the work of supplying a hospital like the Royal with its linen and you have done well. You cannot realise how much it has meant to a Ward Sister to know that she could go to the Linen Cupboard and get just what she wanted for her patients’ needs.’

Timothy Whites

The older generation will remember Timothy White’s shops as a mainstay of over 622 high streets through Britain. Timothy White opened his first shop selling household essentials in Portsea in 1848. Over the next decades he expanded to the Isle of Wight, Chichester and Petersfield. He was also involved in the wider life of the Town, being a supporter of the local Ragged School, a trustee of St John Portsea and a founder of the Portsmouth military volunteer movement. After Timothy’s death in 1908, the business was expanded throughout the country by his son and descendants. The chain was eventually sold to Boots in 1968.

A Retailing Revolution

A new way of shopping was pioneered in Portsmouth. In 1948 the innovative Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society (PIMCO) opened the first completely self service store in the country in Albert Road, Southsea. The venture proved so successful, with trade increasing by 80% over a mere two months, that four more stores operating in the same format were opened during the next year. Self service in food shopping is now so universal it is difficult now to imagine a time when this was a novelty. Portsmouth City Records Office have an extensive collection of PIMCO records which can be freely viewed every week day: www.portsmouthrecordsoffice.co.uk