AN ENGLISHMAN’S CAREER.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 22 July 1901, Page 4

AN ENGLISHMAN’S CAREER.

There are many curious stories told in India of men who have chosen to live in native fashion, but seldom can there have been a stranger case than that of John Ford, an Englishman who died recently at Kynee, near Allahabad, at the age of about 60. Ford was a gentleman by birth and education, belonging to a good country family in the centre of England. At one time he was a railway engineer, but afterwards took to brickmaking. He married a Hindoo of the brickmakmg class, and lived with her for many years in the native house in which he recently died. It is said that his wife initiated him into the trade of brick making, and by the knowledge he thus acquired he was able to make a large fortune. Ho owned a considerable extent of land in the neighborhood of his house, and it is believed that when his estate is realised it will come to over six lakhs of rupees. He seems to have been deeply attached to his wife, who died some eighteen months ago, and almost the only article in a will made before her death provided for her in the case of her surviving him. Before her death, also, he was engaged in the plans of a large house in English fashion and had bought a quantity of English furniture but he gave up these plans when his wife died, and took to building an elaborate tomb for her remains. In the meantime her stone coffin rested in the verandah, and when the doctor who attended him in his last illness brought him some beef tea he -begged that it should not come near the coffin out of respect of his wife’s religion. He was quite collected up till the day of his death and talked intelligently on English affairs. Though the old man’s end was necessarily lonely, it is satisfactory to know that he was discovered by Europeans before his death and carefully tended during his last illness. His fortune has been left to a niece who is resident in England.