Below are the rules of Greenwich Hospital, as existing in 1853
1. Applications for leave.
No Officer, civil or miltary, excepting the Commissioners, or such Officers as may be sent to a distance on duty, are to be absent from the Hospital for more than forty-eight hours without leave from the Governor, nor for more than one week without our permission. All applications for leave are to be conveyed through the Governor; and the Civil Officers are, in all cases, to obtain the approval of the Commissioners to their letters of application.
2. Apartments
All Officers and others having separate apartments, are to inhabit those assigned to them; and no exchanges, or other appropriation of apartments, or alterations therein; are to be made without our express permission; they are to use their best endeavours to preserve them uninjured, and in a neat and proper state of cleanliness and repair, and they wil be required to make good any loss or injury arising from negligence or inattention on their parts. Applications for repairs to be made on or about the 20th of June or 20th of December in each year.
3. To sign inventories for movable goods
All Officers and others who are provided with movable goods from the Hospital, shall sign an Inventory of the same, which is to be kept by the Steward, and a duplicate given to the Clerk of the Cheque. No Officer or other person shall dispose of their allowance of coals, or other stores, or carry them out of the Hospital.
4. No Officer to be interested in Contracts
No Officer belonging to the Hospital shall in any manner, directly or indirectly, be concerned or interested in any of the Contracts of the Hospital, nor in any benefit or advantage whatsoever which may arise thereby.
5. Uniform to be worn. Round hats on weekdays.
No Pensioner is to be allowed to wear any other dress than the Hospital uniform, and they are always to appear in cocked hats on Sundays; but they are to be permitted to wear decent round black hats on other days; and in hot weather they may wear their sleeve waistcoats without their coats. They are not to be allowed to pass the gates unless they are clean in their persons and decent in their dress.
6. effects of deceased Pensioners
No claims to the effects of deceased Pensioners (which are to be deposited with the Secretary) can be admitted, except from the nearest of kin, unless supported by will (forms for which can be obtained at the Mainguard or Infirmary); but any verbal wishes of the deceased may be complied with if expressed in the presence of two respectable witnesses.
7. Pensioners legs to be examined weekly
All the Pensioners are to be examined once a week by the Boatswain or Boatswain's Mate examined of their respective wards, to see whether they have ulcers on their legs, or eruptions on their skins; and if any Pensioner shall attempt to deceive either of them by saying he is an Infirmary out-patient, he shall be punished as the case may be deemed to deserve.
8. Pensioners and Nurses to attend Divine Service
The Pensioners, and such Nurses as can be spared from their duty, are regularly to attend Divine Service on Sundays, and such other Holy-days as are appointed to be kept, and of which notice is always given, on pain of such mulct or other punishment as the Council may direct; and they are earnestly invited to attend Morning Prayer on weekdays. Those requiring permission to attend other Places of Worship, must obtain a Certificate from the officiating Minister that they belong to his Communion and wish to become regular Members of his Congregation; the Certificates to be approved and signed by the Adjutant, who is to insert their names in a book kept for that purpose. If any Pensioners who have leave to attend Places of Worship out of the Hospital, are found straggling about the town, or are guilty of disorderly conduct, they wil be taken before Council.
9. Punishment for drunkenness
Whoever shall be found drunk shall for the first offence be mulcted for fourteen days; for the second offence he shall be mulcted for three weeks; for the third offence for one month and, if able to work, to wear the Mark No. 1 for the same time, if unable the Mark No. 2; and for the fourth offence that Pensioner shall be suspended for not less than two months, or his beer and ale stopped for three months, and mulcted and confined by mark to the Hospital for the same time, or be discharged if the circumstances of the case appear to deserve it.
10. Swearing &c
Whoever shall be guilty of blaspheming the name of God, or of unlawful or rash oaths, cursings, execrations, uncleanness, lying, or other scandalous actions, in derogation of God's honour, and tending to the corruption of good manners, shall be punished as the nature of the case shall require.
11. Quarrelling with Superior Officers
None shall presume to quarrel with his superior Officer, or use. reproachful speech or gestures, upon pain of discharge, suspension, or mulct, as the offence shall be deemed to deserve; nor to strike any such Offcer upon pain of discharge or expulsion; or quarrel or fight in the Hospital, nor use reproachful or provoking speeches tending to make any quarrel or disturbance; nor be rude or unmannerly to any stranger, upon pain of such punishment as the offence shall be deemed to deserve.
12. Leave of absence [&] Lying-out tickets
Tickets of leave for four days may be obtained at Half-past Nine o'clock every Morning from the Captain of the Month, and it can only be renewed on written application to the Adjutant; but for a longer period application must be made to the Governor, and Tickets for long leave are to be signed by the Adjutant. Permission wil be granted, by Ticket signed by the Adjutant, to industrious and deserving Pensioners and Nurses, for lying-out for a certain period, with a restriction to be present at all Parades; but if this indulgence be abused, their Tickets wil be withdrawn; and although they are living out of the Hospital, they are subject to be called before the Council for any breach of the General Rules, and be liable to suffer the same punishment as if the offence had been committed within the walls of the Hospital.
13. Absenting without leave
None shall absent themselves from the Hospital without leave, upon pain of mulct or other punishment, and if brought back such fine as the case may require; and if they do not return within a fortnight, under any circumstances, after their first absenting themselves, they shall then be made "Run" upon the books of the Hospital. And if any Pensioner shall be committed to prison he shall be immediately discharged from the Hospital, and a notation made on his Pension Ticket, or Certifcate of Service, of the cause of his committal.
14. Ward-keepers to be responsible.
The Wards are never to be left without a Ward-keeper, who will be held responsible for whatever may be lost through his want of vigilance; but in case any stores or other articles be lost from the ward without positive proof of such negligence, the value of the article is to be made up by the ward in general, the ward-keeper to pay one-fourth of the amount, or suffer such ot.her punishment as the case may be deemed to require.
15. Not to receive persons into their cabins at night &c. Not to be later out of cabins than the Rules allow.
None shall receive any persons in their cabins to lie with them, or be there at unreasonable hours; nor be longer out of their cabins at night than shall be allowed by the Rules of the Hospital, upon pain of such punishment as the circumstances of the case shall require.
16. Punishment for theft
All pilfering, theft, and robbery, shall be punished by discharge or expulsion, or as the case may be deemed to deserve.
17. Linen may be taken out. Damaging Stores.
Pensioners of good character may be allowed to take their linen out to wash; they are to bring it in clean and in good order to the Nurse of their Division, so that she may produce it to her Matron at her inspection on the first Thursday of every month. None shall sell, pawn, exchange, purloin, or make in a filthy state by improper use, or otherwise, any of their clothes, linen, or bedding, or those of their fellows, nor anything belonging to the Hospital, nor wilfully damage the same, upon pain of such punishment as the nature of the
case shall require.
18. Punishment for injuring building. Nothing to be hung out to dry.
None shall presume by any means to defile, or deface, or wilfully damage, any part of the Hospital, or anything belonging thereto, nor commit any nuisance therein, upon pain of such punishment as the case may be deemed to deserve. No linen or clothes of any sort are to be spread or hung out to dry from any part of the Hospital.
19. Leaving guard
No Pensioner upon guard shall presume to go off upon any pretence whatever, until he be regularly relieved; nor sleep upon his post while sentinel, upon pain of such punishment as the circumstances of the case shall require.
20. No begging allowed
None shall presume to beg of any person, either within or without the Hospital, whether under the notion of showing the Hospital to strangers, christmas boxes, dusting carpets, carrying coals, or any other pretence whatever, upon pain of such punishment as may be adjudged on consideration of the circumstances.
21. No smoking allowed but in places assigned
None shall presume to smoke tobacco but in the places allowed for it; nor to have any fire or light after the hour appointed, upon pain of such punishment as the case may require. But if any Pensioner or Nurse be detected smoking in the ward or cabin, or with a lighted pipe in their pockets, such person so offending shall be discharged.
22. Not to sell wine or spirits
No one shall presume to sell any wine, brandy or other strong liquors, either within or without the Hospital, nor attempt to bring into the Hospital without permission any strong liquors, upon pain of such punishment as they shall be deemed to deserve.
23. None to sell provisions
None shall presume to sell any part of the ale, beer, or other provisions allowed them by the Hospital, nor take out of the Hospital any part thereof, without a Ticket of Leave for so doing, upon pain of such punishment as the circumstances of the case may require.
24. Not to marry
If any Pensioner or Nurse shall marry after being admitted into the Hospital, such Pensioner or Nurse shall be immediately discharged from the same.
25. Payment of Provision and Tobacco Money
The Victualling-money for those Pensioners and Nurses placed on the money-list, and the Pensioners' weekly money, will be paid every Friday; and also the Nurses' wages on producing a certificate from their Matron that the stores in their charge are all correct. As these payments are made to individuals they wil be considered as musters, and the absentees chequed and sent before the Council, and if their excuse is not satisfactory, they wil be mulcted such sum as the case may be deemed to require.
26. Complaints how to be made
If any Pensioner find cause to complain of the quantity or quaiity of their provisions, or of the stopping thereof, or of their weekly allowance money, or wages, or of anything else allowed them by the establishment of the Hospital, such Pensioner shall qiuetly make the same known to the Captain or Commander of the Month, who is to lay the matter before the Governor, that he may apply a remedy thereto without delay. But no Pensioner shall, upon such or any other pretence whatsoever, privately or publicly, attempt to raise any disturbance in the Hospital, or presume to spread or utter any false or injurious reports, reflecting upon the government of the same, upon pain of discharge, expulsion, or such other punishment as the case, upon due consideration, shall be judged to deserve.
27. Punishment of those privy to misdemeanors, and concealing them
Whoever shall be privy to the commission of any of the aforesaid crimes and misdemeanors and shall not, in one day's time after the commission thereof, report the same to the Commanding Offcer on the spot, shall be liable to the same punishment as the offender, and undergo the same accordingly, or such part thereof as, upon enquiry, shall seem proper.
28. Disobedience to the sentence of Council
None shall presume to refuse compliance with any sentence that may be adjudged by the Council, upon pain of such punishment as the case may be deemed to deserve.
29. Discharge to Out-Pension with notation.
Pensioners who may be found repeatedly disobedient, and thereby render themselves unworthy of the Institution, to whom the Governor may yet be disposed to show lenity, may, instead of expulsion, be discharged to the Out-pension, a note being made upon their Ticket of the cause of their discharge, in order that they may not again be admitted to the benefits of the Hospital. In the event of In-pensioners who have no Out-pension being discharged for misconduct, or made" Run," the nature of their offence is to be inserted in their Certificates of Servitude.
30.
Those who are guilty of misdemeanors and disorderly conduct, whether the same are mentioned in the Rules and Regulations or not, will be brought before Council, and may be sentenced to wear the Marks established for disgrace and punishment, to do the business of a scavenger, to be lodged in a separate ward, or mess at a separate table, or be liable to such other punishment as the Council may find the case to deserve.