A Manly doctor, Dr Harold Graves Bennetts, started St Aubin's Private Hospital in early 1909 to cater for the growing market of those prescribed sea air and convalescent care. Under the matron, Mrs Geraldine Downing, St Aubin's ran for about twenty years as a convalescent hospital, but to begin with also took some maternity cases.
It was a two-storey building, with Bangor slate roof. It stood at (then) 75 North Steyne, on the northern corner with Steinton Street. The hospital conatined an operating theatre and seven rooms for convalescents. It ran as a hospital until circa 1926, when Matron Downing died, and was still owned by the Downing family thereafter. The building was demolished to make way for the landmark Trident high-rise apartments in the late 1960s.
In 1911 the hospital featured in a sensational case. During a quarrel with his wife Ellen on North Steyne beach, a labourer named Matthew Dunning, 32, produced a revolver and shot her at point-blank range. He was standing over her, poised to take a second shot, when a passer-by, Charles Thompson from Young, NSW, threw himself on Dunning and grappled with him, causing him to drop the weapon. Dunning broke free, produced a small bottle of poison, and drank the contents, expiring on the spot.
Mrs Dunning was taken to the nearest hospital, which happened to be St Aubin's. Dr Graves Bennetts operated to remove the bullet. Incredibly, Ellen Dunning, who was described as a quiet, hard-working housemaid, survived the murderous attack. Unfortunately Charles Thompson does not appear to have been recognised for his gallantry in preventing her certain murder.
John MacRitchie
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