Patrons Lunch

I was lucky enough to be one of two representatives of the Royal London Hospital (with Matron Tosh Denholm) at the Patrons Lunch held on Sunday 12th June, to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday. In spite of the rain, the coming together of 10,000 people from the 600 organisations of which the Queen is Patron emphasised not only what an extraordinary contribution she has made to the life of the UK, the Commonwealth and the World at large, but also just how many large and small, statutory and voluntary, widely known and locally known organisations there are, that all do amazing work in their own way. For the record the Queen has been the Hospital’s Patron for a long time, and on a visit in 1990 declared that from that date, the London Hospital would be known as the Royal London Hospital in recognition of all the work it had done for the people of the East End (this was a Royal Proclamation, meaning that the Hospital was not involved in any negotiation of the name).