His Royal Highness Prince Alfred gives funds for a teaching hospital
From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive
Two major events assisted to bring about the realisation of a scheme for a medical school. In 1868, there was an attempt upon the life of H.R.H. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, at Clontarf Beach, Sydney. The Duke was taken to Government House and attended by the surgeons of HMS Galatea and HMS Challenger. As a thanks offering, the Sydney community raised £30 000 for a suitable memorial. The Duke wished the money be used to build a hospital and it was resolved that Prince Alfred Memorial Hospital be erected on the site of the Sydney Infirmary. This proposal encountered legal difficulties and delays until the University of Sydney granted the use of twelve acres of University land, provided that a portion of this was reserved for a school of medicine.
In 1873 The Prince Alfred Hospital Act of Incorporation stipulated that the hospital's medical staff be appointed by a board consisting of University Senate and the hospital's Board of Directors and that it be open for clinical teaching to students of the medical school. In 1882 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital opened and later became the Faculty’s first teaching hospital. The same year the government agreed to finance a medical school.[1]
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