The facility was opened by the Bishop of Exeter as the Kingsbridge, Salcombe and District Cottage Hospital in April 1929.[1] In 1932, Emma José Townsend, a visitor to the hospital, was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal for trying to prevent a farmer from murdering his son with a shotgun in one of the wards.[2][3] It joined the National Health Service in 1948 and subsequently became known as South Hams Hospital.[4]