DISPOSAL AFTER DEATH

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 10194, 5 January 1926, Page 5

DISPOSAL AFTER DEATH

LORD KNUTSFORD’S VIEWS

The recent threat by members of gangs in East London to murder Mr F. N. Charrington, the superintendent of the mission held at Great Assembly Hall, Mile End, has nad an interesting sequel. In view of the possibility of a violent end, Mr Charrington has given instructions in his will-that, immediately after his death, his body should be taken to the London Hospital for the use of the students. This decision camo under the notice of Lord Knutsford, the chairman of the hospital, who, in a letter from Kneesworth Hall, Boyston, received by Mr Charrington, says : “Dear Mr Charrington—The secretary of the medical college has told me of your intention to leave your body to the London Hospital. I think your will should be widely known. People pay much too great respect to the dead bodies of relations, and every day it saddens me to see elaborate processions passing the London Hospital, funeral horses followed by funeral carriages, and, too, bedecked with flowers, and inside _ 1 see quite poor people. We must fight against this. lam leaving in my will an earnest request that none will attend my funeral except the nearest relations. “I wonder if it be true that legally you cannot leave your body to anyone ? I have been told so, but 1 don t believe this. At any rate, it is possible to say that if your body is not sent to the London Hospital the executors are not to receive any legacy you may make them. Our bodies ought to be thrown into the sea if not used for the increase of knowledge. This super-attention to the shell shows want of faith, I feel.” Mf Charrington, in an interview with a Press representative, remark- ' * “I may say that of the thing 1 object to most is the ordinary method of burial. There is much'to be said for cremation, but burial at sea would be my choice if the lam of the country did not prevent it. Now 1 have finally decided to give my body to the London Hospital, for I have tried to be useful all my life to my fellowcreatures, and, if possible;Jwant to be useful in: dohth,4;.. There.; be, no funeral other tliah'a service lii the Great Assembly Hall-beforemy, body is-taken to the dissecting-room.”