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Lady Elizabeth Ann Gomm (1807-1877) was the widow of Field Marshal Sir William Maynard Gomm (1784-1875).  She survived her husband by only two years, dying in November 1877.  She bequeathed the Manor of Rotherhithe to her niece, Emily Blanche Carr, and also founded by her will the Sir William and Lady Gomm's Charity, which provided for pensioners in the ecclesiastical districts of St Mary, St Barnabas and Christ Church in Rotherhithe.

She also bequeathed a sum of money for the benefit of the parish, and in 1883 her Trustees decided to use this to build a hospital in her memory.

The Lady Gomm Memorial Mission House and Accident Hospital opened in 1885 for the benefit of the sick and poor of Rotherhithe.  It was managed by the Anglican community of the Sisters of the Church, who also visited patients in their own homes.  The Sisters conducted Sunday Schools for the children and prepared them for Confirmation.  The Hospital also had a dispensary for the treatment of out-patients.

During WW2 the Hospital suffered bomb damage in the Blitz.  Although the building remained structurally sound, the Hospital nonetheless closed.

Present status (December 2009)

After WW2 the Hospital Trustees, Mr M.C. Carr-Gomm and Colonel Barstow, offered the building on a 99-year lease for a peppercorn rent to Bede House, a Settlement whose premises had been completely destroyed during the war.  Bede House accepted the offer in February 1946 and launched an appeal to raise funds to renovate the building.  It was then used as a community centre and youth club.

 Since 2005 Lady Gomm House has been the home of Cavendish School, a private secondary school.