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Looking through the contemporary regional newspapers, I keep coming across reports of collections around England for the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital Fund. Collecting £50 enabled a bed to be donated to the hospital, and for it to be named, with a name "plaque" above the bed. What the plaque was made of I haven't found out yet - my guess would be wood, and I wonder if any of them have survived.

An endowment of £50 was required for one bed. £50 in 1900 had a relative price worth in 2017 of over £5,000.
www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcom...=50&year_result=2017

Sir Cuthbert Quilter, Bart., M.P., has expressed a wish that the bed which he has generously endowed at the cost of £50 for the Yeomanry Hospital, should be named after the division he represents, the "South Suffolk" bed.

The Marchioness of Bristol has received £816 1s. in response to her appeal for beds in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital. Beds are to be named South Suffolk, Pamela Cobbold, Kerrison, Woolverstone, Saxham, Rougham (2), Ipswich, Bury St. Edmund's, and Suffolk. As there is a surplus of over £50, it is proposed to name another bed Arthur Young, after the great Suffolk agriculturalist and founder of the Suffolk Yeomanry.
Ipswich Journal, Saturday 20th January 1900

Lady Kesteven has received the following contributions to the "Kesteven Bed" in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital to be established in South Africa.....
Grantham Journal, Saturday 20th January 1900

As mentioned in another column Mr. Frank Wacher has already forwarded £50 to Lady Harris for the equipment of a Canterbury bed, and he now appeals for further subscriptions towards a second bed.
The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Saturday 20th January 1900

At the Midland Conservative Club [Birmingham], yesterday, thanks to the personal efforts of the Rev. W. H. Poulton, who spoke to various members who were unable to attend the dinner given on the previous evening to the yeomanry, another sum of £50 was collected for the endowment of a bed in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital. Thus, with the collection made at the dinner, the Midland Conservative Club is now able to provide three beds in the hospital.
Birmingham Daily Post, Wednesday 24th January 1900

Lady Ebrington's proposal that North Devon shall be represented in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital in South Africa has been taken up very heartily. There will not only be a bed named after each of the four boroughs (representing the Squadrons of the Royal North Devon Hussars), but there is to be an "Exmoor" bed, a "Clinton" bed (given by Lady Clinton and the Misses Trefusis), and an "Anderton" bed (given by Mr. Edward Anderton, of Trimstone, Westdown).
The North Devon Journal, Thursday 1st February 1900

Mrs. Phillip Foster's appeal for a Tamworth bed in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital has realised £55, and, as only £50 is required, the balance will be given to the Yeomanry Widow and Orphan Fund.

The following are the principal additional contributors from Shropshire to the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital Fund: - £50 per Lady Margaret Ormsby-Gore for the Whitchurch (Shropshire) bed, £50 for the Wynnstay Hunt bed, £50 per Miss A. Wynne Corrie for the Oswestry bed, £100 from Lord Wenlock for the Wenlock beds, £50 per Lady Curtis for the Ludlow Hunt bed, £50 from Miss Briscoe for the Briscoe bed, and £50 per the Hon. Mrs. Kenyon for the Maelor bed.
Birmingham Daily Post, Monday 5th February 1900

Lady Harris has received funds sufficient to provide twenty beds in the Yeomanry Hospital.
The members of the Tickham Hunt have subscribed the amount required to provide a bed. The collection was made by Lady Violet Milles, sister of Earl Sondes.
The Countess Sondes has presented a bed, which is to bear the family name.
The cost of a bed to be named the "Thanet bed," is defrayed by Mrs. Marks, the wife of Mr. H. H. Marks, M.P.
The funds for an "East Kent Hunt bed" have been over subscribed.
Quartermaster Laslett, D Troop, Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles, has issued a circular appealing for subscriptions from the past and present members of the Canterbury troop, and all interested in it, for the provision of a bed in the hospital.

Mrs. Cornwallis, wife of the member for Maidstone, has met with a most liberal response to her appeal on behalf of the Yeomanry Hospital. She has sufficient money for two beds, which will be called "The Maidstone" and "The Invicta," and there will be a balance of £33, which will be used to supply extra comforts connected with them.
The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Saturday 10th February 1900

The Turner family, Ipswich, have endowed a bed in the Yeomanry Hospital, in response to the Marchioness of Bristol's appeal, by presenting the sum of 53 guineas.
The Ipswich Journal, Saturday 24th February 1900

The members of the Berkeley Hunt have endowed a bed in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital by subscribing £100.
Gloucester Citizen, Wednesday 28th February 1900

Mrs. Soares, of Upcott, has contributed £1 1s. to the Mayor's Fund towards the Barnstaple Bed of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital. This makes the Barnstaple contribution £74 11s. 9d., which sum has been forwarded by the Mayor to Lady Ebrington.
The North Devon Journal, Thursday 1st March 1900

On Saturday, at a meeting of the Longford Harriers, at Gloucester, the Master of the Hunt, Mr Blagrave….and his wife, with their permission, would like to have a collection made with a view to raising sufficient money for a bed in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital in South Africa. He thought they would require about £50. - Mr E. Bellamy moved and Mr Parry seconded that the master's suggestion be carried out, and that the bed be named "The Lady Edward Somerset bed."
Cheltenham Chronicle, Saturday 10th March 1900

So many demands have lately been made upon the Portsmouth public that it would not be in the least surprising if one or more benevolent and patriotic schemes were to fail through lack of support. For a few days this appeared to be the probable fate of the proposal to raise a sum sufficient to equip a Portsmouth bed in the Yeomanry Hospital at the Cape, but to-day the Mayor made the gratifying announcement that the whole of the £50 needed has been subscribed.
Portsmouth Evening News, Monday 12th March 1900

Sir, - As I am now desirous of closing the account for the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, I ask your indulgence that I may once again through your columns make known the amount of donations received, and give a full list of the beds given and subscribed for. Since my last letter I have to acknowledge: -
Per Rev. Canon Hodges (2nd collection) £13 13s. 6d.
Mrs. Maitland Wilson £5
The Misses M. Wilson £4
General contributions, including the above, amounting to £379 17s. 6d., have provided the following named beds: - The Suffolk Bed, East Suffolk Bed, West Suffolk Bed, Ipswich Bed No. 1, Bury St. Edmund's Bed, St. James's Bury St. Edmund's Bed, Arthur Young Bed.

The following beds have been presented: - The South Suffolk Bed, by Sir Cuthbert and Lady Quilter; Woodbridge Bed, Mr. and Lady Beatrice Pretyman; Pamela Cobbold Bed, Mr. and Lady Evelyn Cobbold; Woolverstone Bed, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Berners; Kerrison Bed, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Kerrison; Ipswich Bed No. 2, Messrs. W. and J. Charters; Saxham Bed, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Riley Smith; two Rougham beds, Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone; the Turner Family of Ipswich Bed. - Faithfully yours, Ipswich Journal, Saturday 17th March 1900

The receipts from the Stockton v. Sunderland [hockey] match, played at Norton Cricket Ground on the 10th inst., were £25, and "Has been" added £5, and a cheque for £30 has been forwarded to the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, with the intimation that if a bed is named Stockton Hockey Club Bed, the club will guarantee another £20 during October next.
The Northern Echo, Saturday 17th March 1900

The Jewish boys and girls of Cape Town have endowed a bed in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital; the Israel Lodge is doing likewise.
The Glasgow herald, Monday 19th March 1900

The Canterbury Bank, Kent, in early 1900, was collecting subscriptions for the "Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, Lady Harris' Fund." Contributions received for the Blackheath bed and the Chilham bed.
The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, Saturday 24th March 1900

There were also collections for the Welsh Hospital and the Scottish National Red Cross Hospital.


Photo above from The Graphic, Saturday, 19th May 1900, and described as "In the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital the beds and endowment donations have been allotted to wards according to the localities from which they were given. Thus, a bed given by the Princess of Wales, and named "Alexandra," after her, is to be found in the Eastern Counties Ward. Our photograph is by J. Hall Edwards."

The Eastern Counties Ward in the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein. The plaques can be clearly seen above the beds showing the source of the £50 donations to fund each one - Chelmsford, Newmarket Town, Isle of Ely and Babraham. The latter is a hamlet near Cambridge and the £50 was paid by a Mr & Mrs Adams. About half a dozen donations contributed to the Newmarket one with 3 from married couples and one from a Mrs Neuman who I think was on the IY Hospital Funding Committee along with more than one Duchess. My inflation calculator tells me £50 in 1900 would be worth £6,849 today. Photo courtesy of the Wellcome Collection.