Z1265/14/2/4

Letter to Robert Barry Stafford of Cauldwell House, Bedford from “Hen Radnor” [Helen Matilda, wife of William Pleydell-Bouverie, 5th Earl of Radnor, Conservative MP for South Wiltshire 1874-1885 and Enfield 1885-1889, Treasurer of the Household 1885-1886 and 1886-1891; Governor of the French Hospital, Finsbury 1890-1900 ]

8 July 1896

From: 1896 To: 1896

“I feel so much sympathy for the 160 poor Idiot & Imbecile Children, who from want of friends, are unable to obtain admission to the Earlswood Idiot Asylum, that I have unhesitatingly consented to join the “Earlswood Ladies’ Auxiliary” & to give an Inaugural Concert in June and July next (with my “ladies’ String Band & Choir”) in aid of the Special Appeal for £5,000 towards the opening of the 60 Closed Beds in the Asylum”. “No calamity can be more pitiable or more distressing than Idiocy & Imbecility, which deprives those so deeply afflicted of all the pleasures, which we, who are of sound mind, enjoy. I have accepted the Office of President of the Ladies’ Appeal Committee & I therefore venture to ask you to help me to make this special Appeal a success by sending me a subscription for my List”. “The subscriptions will be announced at the Concert by which time I trust the full amount required may have been subscribed”. “I beg you to forgive me for troubling you & hope that I may have the pleasure of receiving the enclosed form filled up & returned by you”

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Stafford, Robert Barry,
Radnor, Helen Matilda Pleydell-Bouverie, Countess of

personal correspondence, social & welfare provision mental handicap, music societies, Earlswood Idiot Asylum