A “GOOD FAIRY”

Evening Star, Issue 23292, 14 June 1939, Page 6

A “GOOD FAIRY”

POOR FOLK TO SHARE £53,288 Gentle, 90-years-old ’Mrs Theresa Stansfield Kennedy, for years friend and patroness to the villagers of hour Elms and Toy'* Hill, Kent, has renumbered almost 1 every soul in her ±,sa,ioa will writes Rhona Churchill m a London journal. . . All the old people in both: villages will get annuities, the yicarls stipend will be increased,: and 26 cottage families in each village will receive free beef and groceries each Christmas. Their children will bo given buns, oranges, and new sixpences at the end of each Christmas term. ; All this, and more, is included. in Mrs Kennedy’s will. In Four ; Elms she has built and endowed a rest home for clergy. Nineteen acres of her estate at Edenbridge will be a perpetual playground for cyclists, hikers, and picnickers, under' National ffdst protection. When the villagers assembled, to see their fairy godmother buried Itt-KJarin-ary they heard their vicar, the Rev. Douglas Percy Winniffith, say: “I think she is the most wonderful woman who ever lived.” He is her trustee, and receives £4OO, besides ah increase in stipend. “ Mrs Kennedy was a remarkable woman,” he said in an interview. “ She inherited substantial property from her parents through. two elder brothers. She once told me she regarded it as a trust for the villagers. “ I had only to tell her of a deserving case, and she ja-ould send money. Since childhood" the has never beenable to do enough for the poor of this district. You should hear old Mrs Tillman talking about her.” Mrs Tillman, now 76, was in service at the vicarage, married Mrs Kennedy’s father’s groom, and went to live in a cottage on the property. She is to receive £3O a year. Of Mrs Kennedy she says: "She was one of the old aristocrats. When I could not pay the rent she used to' say, ‘ Forget about it till you can pay.' She charged me 3s 6d rent for a cottage they say is worth 10s 6d.” Mrs Tidy, postmistress at Tayes Hill, added to the story. “ Mrs Kennedy and her mother used to visit the cottages once a week, seeing what the villagers needed. They had electric light installed in the cottages. Every November each mother received 9yds of serge and 4y.ds of calico for each child of school age. “ On Christmas Eve, Mrs Kennedy s ’ brothers would drive round with large joints of beef and vegetables for each family.” • About 60 years ago Airs Kennedy married and left Four Elms to live in Leamington Spa. But no week passed without a letter to one or more villagers, and regularly • she went back to visit the cottages. ’ ’ Said Bliss Ellen Skinner, now 71, another legatee, who receives 10s a week for life: “ Years ago Mrs Ken-’ nedy discovered my birthday. Since then, every birthday, she has sent me 10s. My stepfather was once ill for six months. All that time Mrs Kennedy kept us. She waa like that.” There was the case of Alice Roffey, a cripple Alice could not walk, so Mrs Kennedy took her to live with her. and treated her like her own child. Now Alice lives with a relative, blit will receive 10s a week for life under the will. '

Mrs Kennedy’s property goes to her second counsin. Major S. S. Williams,