History

We are in Paris in 1870, in the middle of the disastrous war with Prussia. The Prussian army has marched on Paris to surround and lay siege to it.

Sir Richard Wallace, born in London in 1818, a Member of Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, has chosen to live in France, and would like to demonstrate his attachment to his adopted home.

During the Prussian siege, he gifts the 13th Army Corps, in which his son is serving, with an ambulance, and fits out two others.

He distributes 100 000F to victims of the Prussian bombardments and he has the Hertford British Hospital built in memory of his father, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, who died in 1870. Sir Richard is also widely known for the eponymous Wallace drinking fountains, still one of the distinctive known features or Paris, which he had built at the time to provide water to the inhabitants after the seige.

This work of beneficence was constructed by the architect Paul-Ernest Sanson (1836-1918), who is also famed for building the Château at Chaumont sur Loire. The Hospital was inaugurated in in 1879 by Lord Lyons, the British Ambassador to France. It was originally intended to serve the English community resident in France, but was in due course opened to French patients also.

Sir Richard Wallace died in 1890, and his widow, Julie Amélie Charlotte was his sole inheritrix. In her will, Julie, Lady Wallace, bequeathed all her husband's collections and properties to the British government (most acquired by Lord Hertford) which formed the "Wallace Collection", with the exception of the collections and the Chateau of Bagatelle in Paris, which was left to her counsellor Sir John Murray Scott.

The hospital continued with a military and civil role during both World Wars, but today functions as a private non-profit making organization. The hospital forms part of the French Public Health Service. The hospital’s main patron from 1937 until her death was the Queen Mother, and at her request, staff from the hospital were invited to the celebration of her 100th birthday in London.

In 1982, the Hospital's British trustees undertook a major programme of construction on the grounds adjacent to the original building, nick-named the "Cathedral", intended for the new hospital. In 1986 it was decided to demolish the original "Cathedral" building as unsuitable to be replaced by a more modern one. However, on 7th April, 1987, the "Cathedral" was declared a historic monument. So after renovating the interior and extending it more modern constructions to the rear, it was let as office space and retains that usage today.

The Hertford British Hospital is still registered as a Charity in the UK, and in France is operates as a not-for-profit foreign Association under the so-called "Loi 1901" governing such organisations.