Griffith Rowlands. Stipple engraving by A.R. Burt after Henry Wyatt.

Griffith Rowlands was born near Harlech in 1761. He was apprenticed to a doctor in Liverpool and later served as a house surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital London. In 1785 he was appointed surgeon at Chester Infirmary, where he remained for forty-three years until his death in 1828. He was "a liberal promoter of every benevolent scheme for the public good". He was the originator in 1798 of the Ladies Benevolent Institution, which provided a free maternity service in their own homes for poor married women. The recipients of the charity were "supplied with the necessary articles of linen, sheets, etc., during their confinement; with two pounds of sugar, a quarter of a pound of tea, and a pound of soap each ... Baby clothes are found in cases of great poverty, and the children are expected to be vaccinated within the month." To help him in his work he trained a number of competent midwives (information compiled by the Chester City Archivist and kindly supplied in 1996; records of the Chester (from 1914 Chester Royal) Infirmary and of the Ladies Benevolent Institution are in the City Record Office, Chester)