Lala Lajpat Rai was a well-known figure in the political and social circles of pre-Independence India. His mother, Gulab Devi, died of TB in Lahore. In order to perpetuate her memory, Lala Lajpat Rai established a Trust in 1927 to build and run a TB Hospital for women reportedly at the spot where she had breathed her last. The Trust purchased 40 acres of land in April 1930 from the government. A marble plaque bears witness to the opening of the Hospital on 17th July 1934 by Mr. Mahatma Gandhi. On the migration of trustees to India in 1947, the Government invited Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan, Syed Maratab Ali, Professor Dr Amiruddin and some other notables and philanthropists to become acting Trustees of the Hospital in July 1948. They constituted a Managing Committee with Begum Raana in the Chair, for running the Gulab Devi Chest Hospital.