Resources 2: Docs

Published April 2009

Biography of Frank Mathews

Ludlow based Castle View Books in association with the Institute for the History and Work of Therapeutic Environments has published “An Obscure Philanthropist” a biography of Frank Mathews, 1871-1948, by Dr Tony Rees.

Frank Mathews will be remembered by many as the leader of Birmingham’s Cripples Union from 1899 and the founder of the Cripples Hospital, now the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, whose centenary is celebrated this year.

After leaving the Union in 1922 he went on to found charities working for children with heart problems, then the biggest cause of death, and children with nervous and behavioural problems, pioneering new treatment regimes for both.

Much of this work was done in the counties of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, where children were sent to local hospitals to recuperate or put under the care of foster parents on small farms.

Two years before his death he bought Bodenham Manor, just north of Hereford, which became, from its opening in 1950, a successful and influential therapeutic community for children under pioneering child care figure David Wills OBE.

This is the story of a man born into a middle class family but orphaned in childhood, who devoted his life to sick children, many from the poorest families. He inspired support from cabinet ministers and industrialists, factory workers, the parents of the children he helped and, later in their lives, the children themselves.

The story, written by someone who knew him, is told largely in his own words.

Too rarely do people like Frank reach out to us as rounded characters and too rarely can we truly appreciate their work and their legacies. Therein lies the importance of this biography. Frank Mathews made a difference. He changed lives and we can understand him, his calling and his work all the better thanks to Tony's assiduous research and thoughtful writing."

- Professor Carl Chinn, MBE, School of History and Cultures, University of Birmingham