Dr Selina Fox

Founder of Bermondsey Mission Hospital and champion of poor and disadvantaged women in Bermondsey.

Selina Fox, later to become Dr Fox, was born in 1871 into an eminent family who were mostly engineers. Her motivations were altruistic from an early age and Selina had her sights set on missionary work. Her own health was not strong enough to withstand this kind of work but it was not long before Selina had become a medical officer at a missionary training school in Bermondsey.

So successful and important was her work here that Selina extended her services to local people. Her work grew and grew until in 1904 the Bermondsey Medical Mission was set up at 44 Grange Road. The Mission was staffed entirely by women and treated women and children for a nominal fee.

During the first world war Dr Selina Fox worked as a governor and medical officer at Aylesbury Women’s Prison. After the war ended she continued to expand her mission by setting up a small hospital in an army hut in the grounds of her surgery. In 1929 a purpose built Bermondsey Mission Hospital was opened round the corner in Crimscott Street.

She was awarded an MBE for her life’s work in 1938. After the second world war, Dr Selina Fox continued to live in the neighbourhood, which she had served so well. She moved to 45 Grange Road, next to the original site of the mission. Fittingly, she died in her own hospital in 1958. The old hospital building in which she worked is now called Lena Fox House, in memory of this dedicated and self-effacing woman.

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