Sea Bathing

'Southsea beach boasts a superiority over any other in the kingdom, for the clear sea-water, and the acknowledged utility which has followed the use of its baths in numerous complaints which bade defiance to medical skill'

A visitor Thomas Roscoe writing in 1830.

The youngest Mayoress

In November 1907, the country’s youngest mayoress, Doris Foster, made civic history when she was invested at the Guildhall in Portsmouth. Doris, whose mother had recently died, was aged only 5. She presided over, and added charm to, many note-worthy local occasions. In particular she helped enormously to raise funds totaling £1000 for the endowment of two cots in the children’s ward of the Royal Hospital. This feat is commemorated in a beautiful tiled mural constructed from Doulton tiles, originally positioned in the children’s ward, but now located in the City Museum.