PRINCE OF BEGGARS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1936, Page 6

PRINCE OF BEGGARS

OLD LORD KNUTSFORD WORK FOR LONDON HOSPITAL Among social workers throughout the English-speaking world Sydney Holland, Lord Knutsford, always will be remembered as "the Prince of Beggars," says a writer in the Melbourne "Age." Through his famous campaigns he raised £5,000,000 for the London .Hospital, the great institution to which he gave almost a full working life and which, for thirty years, he ruled as the most benevolent of despots. His extraordinary success in appealing to the rich to give to the sick poor, however, is only one phase of a remarkable record of devoted service which will" inspire and encourage all who are moved by the humanitarian impulse. The London"—England's largest hospital in its poorest district—is today the model, of modern hospitals, and the great centre of research largely because one man stamped his personality on every branch of its activities. Sydney Holland was not a sentimentalist;, nor one of the "idle, rich" seeking a hobby. He was a busy man of affairs,, a keen sportsman, and one who enjoyed the full.zest of living. But he had energies to spare, and in hospital leadership he exulted.. . , When he became chairman of the London Hospital late last century the institution was in low water. Voluntary subscriptions were paltry, the buildings were old and unsuitable, the (staffing arrangements were scandalousI Iv. unsatisfactory,, and the outlook, was altogether bleak.

HOSPITAL REBUILT. In the following years Sydney Hol- : land, with the help of a devoted band of assistants, rebuilt and greatly extended the hospital, introduced a new era for nurses, and invested research with a new meaning and importance. But perhaps the most lasting effect of his influence is that under his'direction there came a profound change in the atmosphere and spirit of modern successors of the old "almshouses." Holland's lifelong principle in hospital management is now known within the London, and far beyond \ it, as "the spirit of the rose." Public hospitals of forty years ago—and some even of more recent times—were considered, to fulfil their purpose if they were reasonably efficient as "repairing shops.", For patients as individuals there was little consideration, and for their relatives even less. Holland attacked that cold callousness ffom the outset. From his teaching an incident grew into a legend. . A poor woman was brought in for a critical operation. After the shock of. it she hovered between living and dying and,'not greatly caring to live, she was on death's side of the border line. As the critical minutes passed the nurse who had charge of her suddenly went out and returned with a great bowl of roses which she ■ put down by the woman's pillow. Her eyes could not see them and the nurse then took out a single rose, held it to the patient's nose, and then put it in her hand. So was brought back to that hovering spirit the will to live. That miracle of the rose became a legend, a practical illustration of what the spirit of the hospital, on which its chairman insisted, meant. ANOTHER EXAMPLE.

Another example, small,,but as many hospital visits will realise, important, illustrates the new spirit which' was inculcated. It was a rule that an anxious relative, wandering in the corridor, must never be asked, "What do you want here?" a different tone —"What,can I do to help 'you?" Since.he died five years ago, several books have been published dealing with the hospital revolution in which Lord. Knutsford played one of the leading parts. To them has been added a memoir by John Gore. It is an uncritical work, clearly the tribute of a devoted admirer. Sydney Holland, as he will be remembered, became a great pioneer and a notable organiser of hospital management because he made one of his favourite quotations a working creed: "If you cannot look down with mercy; how can you look up with hope?"