The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name that was posted in Derby on Tuesday the 16th. December 1913 to:
Mrs. W. Pitson,
15, Toot Baldon,
Near Oxford.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Tuesday.
Dear Mother,
Just a line to wish you
many happy returns of
your birthday.
I do hope you are keeping
well and all the rest. I do
wish I could see you my
dearest Mother - wouldn't
it be nice if we were coming
home for Xmas.
I am so sorry I didn't write
a letter to you but I have
been out to tea with Eddy so
I am tired.
I will write at Xmas.
Goodbye my dear Mother,
With my very best love and
best wishes from
Jenny xxx"
Derbyshire Royal Infirmary
The Derbyshire Royal Infirmary was a hospital in Derby. Following the transfer of community services to the London Road Community Hospital, the infirmary closed in 2009, and most of the buildings were demolished in 2015.
History of the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary
In early 1803, the Reverend Thomas Gisborne and Isaac Hawkins Browne Esq. signified their intention to appropriate £5,000 towards an infirmary to be erected at Derby.
On the 5th. April 1803 the High Sheriff of Derby (Robert Wilmot) held a meeting to consider the founding of a hospital in Derby. At this meeting it was noted that subscriptions promised had already reached £17,215, with a further £2,592 and 18 shillings annually.
On the 6th. October 1803, a committee was appointed consisting of all subscribers of more than £50, and it was decided that the first payment of 25% or more would be required by the 12th. January 1804.
The infirmary building, principally under the inspiration of the cotton manufacturer, William Strutt, made a deliberate attempt to incorporate into a medical institution the latest “fireproof” building techniques with technology developed for the textile mills. The Infirmary building opened in what is now Bradshaw Way, Derby on the 4th. June 1810.
In 1890, during the year that he was Mayor of Derby, Alfred Seale Haslam managed to replace the old Derbyshire General Infirmary with the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.
That year there had been an outbreak of disease at the old infirmary, and Sir William Evans, President of the Infirmary, arranged a three-day inspection which condemned the old building.
When Queen Victoria came to lay a foundation stone for the new hospital on the 21st. May 1891, she knighted Haslam for his services and gave permission for the term "Royal" to be used. The new Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, designed by the architects Young and Hall, was completed and officially opened in 1894.
Following the transfer of community services to the London Road Community Hospital located further south-east along London Road, the infirmary closed in 2009, and most of buildings were demolished in 2015. However a façade with its two "pepper-pot towers" dating back to 1894 was retained.
Erwin Rothbarth
So what else happened on the day that Jenny posted the card to her mother?
Well, the 16th. December 1913 marked the birth in Frankfurt am Main of Erwin Rothbarth.
Erwin was a German economist and statistician. He worked as a research assistant for John Maynard Keynes, and made important contributions to the measurement of GDP and the modelling of individual consumption.
Rothbarth was born to a German Jewish family. His father, Otto Rothbarth was a lawyer. Erwin studied Law at the University of Frankfurt from 1932 to 1933, when he fled Germany to the United Kingdom.
He graduated from the London School of Economics in 1936, and remained there as a researcher in economics and statistics until 1938. He moved to Cambridge University in 1938, and became a research assistant to John Maynard Keynes in 1939.
From May to August 1940 Rothbarth was interned by the British government due to his German nationality. In September 1940 he married Myfanwy Charles.
He volunteered for the Suffolk Regiment of the British Army and was killed on the 25th. November 1944 in heavy fighting near Venray, The Netherlands. He was 30 years of age when he died.
Erwin Rothbarth's Work on GDP
While working as Keynes' research assistant for the influential article 'How to Pay for the War' Rothbarth developed techniques which are now used to calculate GDP.
Rothbarth calculated statistics for private income and outlay, government income and outlay, national output, and savings and investment.
Rothbarth's main contribution, and the main advancement from the older work of Colin Clark on national income, is the concept of Gross National Income which is a large component of modern GDP figures.
Rothbarth's and Keynes' figures are also the first GDP figures to be based on a double-entry accounting system in order to ensure their accuracy.
