Eleanor MacKinnon Memorial Junior Red Cross Home

Eleanor MacKinnon Memorial Junior Red Cross Home was officially opened on 15 February 1938 as a boys’ home in Ramsgate. It had, however, already taken in groups of boys over the preceding summer. In 1942-1943, the Home temporarily relocated to ‘Belltrees’, near Scone. After moving back to the Ramsgate location, the Home closed in early 1951.

The Eleanor MacKinnion Memorial Junior Red Cross Home was opened to commemorate the late Mrs Eleanor MacKinnon, the Junior Red Cross founder and honorary director from 1914 until her death in 1936. The Home was officially opened by Lady Gowrie, wife of the then Governor-General, and friend of Mrs MacKinnon, on 15 February 1938. It was a seaside preventorium for boys.

The Junior Red Cross Home also ran “Cudgelo”, a Home for girls located nearby in Ramsgate.

A newspaper article described its location, “directly opposite a pretty park, with the beach and baths at Ramsgate only a minute’s walk away … The chidlren sleep in a large open-air dormitory protected with mosquito-proof wire.” (Liverpool News, 10 February 1938). It could accommodate 12 children.

In 1942, during World War Two, the Home’s seaside location at Ramsgate was temporarily relocated to the ‘Belltrees’ estate, near Scone. The Daily Telegraph reported: “A large cottage has been made available to the Junior Red Cross by Mr and Mrs Alfred White to accommodate delicate children of Australian soldiers. Boys who formerly were cared for at the Eleanor Mackinnon Memorial Home will now be taken to Belltrees (8 April 1942)”. A group of 12 boys were the first to stay at the new location. In 1943, the Home moved back to the Ramsgate location.

In 1948, it was reported that since opening, Cudgelo had cared for over 2100 children, and that the nearby Eleanor MacKinnon Memorial Home had cared for ‘over 800 small sons’.

This Home closed in 1951. At that time, children were relocated to the Eleanor MacKinnon Memorial Home in Lucas Street, Cronulla.