AN OLD MAN'S PLEA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 133, 17 March 1933, Page 8

AN OLD MAN'S PLEA.

SERVANT "BOUGHT" FOR £6O. Pathos lies behind the sentence of 56 days' detention passed at Aklershot recently on Signalman Francis Cyril Fairhurst, aged 20, of the First Divisional Signals. Eight months previously he deserted. For two months he found honest employment as male servant to Mi- G. Hollingworth, of Clapham Common, an old man of 80 whose life was dependent on having a competent man in attendance. Since Mi* Hollingworth was knocked down by a motor-car several months ago he has lieen liable to attacks of giddiness and fainting. It has not been safe to leave him alone at night and in the streets he requires an attendant. He became very attached to Fairhurst. He said: "I have had three male servants before, but with none of them have I been happy as with Fairhurst. I am paying £6O for his discharge from the Army. It is a lot to buy the freedom of any man, but I need him, so I am payJl»g it. I hope he will be released sooner than the full 56 days of his sentence." Mr Hollingworth's doctor wrote a letter for the considerationi of the Court, stating that the early return of Fairhurst might be the means of saving Mr Hollingworth's life.