I am trying to find my time of birth at ST HELIER hospital London England 4/07/60

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 29 Jan 2003 16:26 PST

Dear giantlily,

Have you already contacted the hospital? They might have files with
exact birth data.

Regards,
Scriptor

Dear Giant Lily,

I suggest two different possible approaches.

The first approach would be to contact The General Register Office
(GRO) for England and Wales at
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/nsbase/registration/general_register.asp.
They maintain a central registry for all births, marriages, and deaths
that have occurred in England and Wales since 1837.  A copy of your
birth certificate will cost you 11 pounds, and you can pay with a Visa
card.

Here is a link to the application form you will need to fill out:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/registration/certe_w/downloads/birth.pdf

What's the problem with that approach?  I am concerned that English
birth certificates may not include your time of birth.  In a later
section of the Website above, where the GRO sets out the information
that is needed to register a birth, they say "date and place of birth;
if the birth is one of twins, triplets, etc., the time of each child's
birth will be needed."

Thus (unless you happen to have been one of twins or triplets), I am
uncertain whether your birth certificate will include your time of
birth.  You could contact the GRO to ask them this question:
Phone 011-44-0870-243-77-88
Email info@statistics.gov.uk  
They aim to answer all queries within ten business days.  That phone
number, by the way, is the equivalent of a U.S. 800 number.  I don't
know whether you will be able to reach it from outside the U.K.

A second approach would be to contact St. Helier Hospital directly to
see whether they have the original medical records of your birth.  In
the United States, state laws govern the length of time that hospitals
must keep medical records, and it is routine practice to destroy
medical records after that time has passed.  (There are companies that
specialize in the archiving and destruction of medical records!)  I
don't know (and did not attempt to find out) whether practices are
similar in England.

St. Helier Hospital's phone number is 011-44-20-8296-2000.  

Their address is:
St. Helier Hospital
Wrythe Lane
Carshalton
Surrey
SM5 1AA
   
Unfortunately, St. Helier hospital is in considerable distress right
now -
see the article "A hospital in desperate need of intensive care"
http://society.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4242826,00.html
and I am not sure if they will respond to your query in a timely
manner.

Good luck with it!

Dear Giantlily,

It may interest you to learn that you share a birthplace (in St Helier
Hospital) with the former British prime minister John Major.  See:

http://www.sutton.gov.uk/lfl/heritage/Car/st_helier.htm

Carnegie