Siblings visit the Birmingham hospital where their doctor and midwife parents met and fell in love

ITV Central reporter Ravneet Nandra took a trip down memory lane with siblings James and Liz.


It's New Year's Day in 1955 and a doctor is celebrating his 21st birthday.

He meets a midwife and both are tasked with observing the delivery of a baby in the maternity ward of Birmingham City Hospital.

It's here where Chris Garrett and Gwen Goodson found love and they married 18 months later.

Nearly 70 years on and their children are visiting the very same wards where their parents met.

Chris Garrett and Gwen Goodson found love at the hospital and married 18 months later.

James Garrett and Liz Wielaard found memorabilia from their parents' time at the hospital while training and realised there was a significant story to tell.

Nursing exercise books, black and white pictures and even Victorian medical instruments were found.

They've decided to donate some of the finds to The Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust which will then be placed at the new Midland Metropolitan Hospital, due to open next year.

It'll be part of an exhibition, celebrating 75 years of the NHS, and to make sure the memories of the old victorian hospital buildings can live on in the new site.

Ruth Wilkin from the hospital trust said: "We know that the NHS has been bringing people together for decades so it's a great opportunity for staff and for patients and the public to come together and celebrate."

Nursing exercise books, black and white pictures and even Victorian medical instruments were found.

Liz, their daughter, flicks through the nursing exercise books where her mum got good marks.

"She's even got some good notes comments in there.

"Amazing because she left school at 14, at 17 she went to train as nurse and came up to Dudley Road to do midwifery, and that's where she met dad.

Her older brother, James, remarks on a story their dad told them when he was courting their mum while working at the hospital.

He said: "Obviously there's some attraction because he keeps coming back, allegedly to feed the babies when he's on night shift but it's because my mum, he said later, made porridge without lumps in it.

"He was here obviously to see my mum.

Chris and Gwen are no longer with us but their children are celebrating their romance with a new exhibition marking 75 years of the NHS

Chris and Gwen's love story

Chris was studying medicine at The University of Birmingham and doing part of his training at City Hospital on Dudley Road where he met Gwen.

She was a year older and, along with her friend, Mary Ann Wallis, was training as a midwife there.

He and she met in the delivery room, where they were both observing the birth of a baby.

They fell in love and married 18 months later, one week after Chris' graduated.

Their son James was born in April 1957, just 10 months after their wedding.

Gwen gave up work at that point to look after the children and while Chris was conscripted and posted to Scotland to do his national service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC).

Chris later signed on as a regular and eventually retired from the RAMC in the early-1990s with the rank of Brigadier. He was also a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.