Our Story

We’ve been with you from the start.

A hospital was first established on the Tainui Street site in 1924.

The land was once owned by Thomas Jolly who purchased it for thirty shillings from Major Jackson Keddell of the 4th Waikato Regiment. Keddell had been granted 400 acres for his services during the Waikato campaign.

In 1894 Jolly died after being gored by a Jersey bull and his assets passed to his wife and two sons. By 1905 the process of breaking up the estate had begun. An early purchaser of part of the estate was Andrew Seymour Brewis, uncle of Dr Edward Cecil Brewis, one of the founding doctors of Braemar Hospital Ltd.

The land was then transferred by Mary Jolly to Alexander McRae in 1906 who in turn sold it to a George Cornfoot in 1909.

The section where the old water tower stood was sold to the Frankton Town Board in 1912. It remained in their hands until 1967 when it transferred to Hamilton City Council who demolished the tower and sold the section to Braemar Hospital Ltd in 1969.

The Cornfoot residence and accompanying grounds formed part of that total purchase and they were bought by Frances Young, a nursing sister, in 1926. Prior to that purchase the property had been leased to Nettie Neilson who used the building as a maternity hospital. Young changed the name from ‘Tirohia’ to ‘Braemar’ and converted it to a medical and surgical hospital.

In 1931 Young purchased an adjoining section and built a maternity home known as ‘Waione’ on that piece of land. As demand for private maternity homes declined, “Waione’ was converted to a nurses’ home serving Braemar Hospital.

Young ran Braemar until April 1935 when she retired after leasing the hospital to Sisters Smith and Barrett.

In 1946 Young had decided to sell Braemar to a boarding-house keeper because of her inability to maintain the building. This meant the potential loss of a private surgical facility for doctors excluded from operating at Waikato Hospital. At that stage Waikato Hospital was ‘closed’ to general practitioners who wished to operate on their patients. Their concern led to a decision by three doctors to lease the building from Young and form the ‘Braemar Hospital Company’ in 1946. Those three doctors were Edward Cecil Brewis, Duncan Mcdiarmid and William Fea.

By 1954 the doctors were discussing the possibility of buying the property from Sister Young, who had signalled her intention to sell when the lease expired. While Sister Young wanted 20,000 pounds the doctors were only prepared to pay 15,000 pounds and a leasing arrangement continued until 1963.

By 1963 negotiations for buying Braemar had begun again, and a price of 25,000 pounds was eventually agreed.

In 1966 the water tower was demolished and the land was subsequently purchased by Braemar from the council in 1969. The water tower had dominated the Hamilton skyline for 55 years.

In 1970 Braemar Hospital Ltd resolved to transfer to the Braemar Hospital Charitable Trust all of the assets of the company on the condition that the hospital operate as a charitable trust.