WE A L RECLUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12266, 9 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

WE A L RECLUSE.

OWNER OF £50,000 WHO LIVED ON

SIX SHILLINGS A WEEK. Ax aged recluse, with property worth about

£50,000, has lived practically alone for 30 years amid the whirl of the thick London traffic as exemplified in Theobald's Road, and has spent money on his personal needs at the rate of about* six shillings a week. Charles Truwhitt had a country estate with a pleasant county residence known as ! Brand's Hatch, Fawkham, near Longfield, Kent, and kept horses and carriages and a ) caretaker there, but the place seems to have j had no attractions for him. ' A few days i ago lie suddenly died from syncope where j he had lived so long—34, Theobald's Road— ! within sight of the colony of solicitors ::i\ which, years ago. hr- had been a member. I His wife had died some thirty years s;;ace, ! and at the inquest which was held the only ■ persons to come forward to tell or his life were John Mowlem Burt, whose wile is a niece of the deceased, and Mrs. Field, I who had acted as housekeeper to the weal- ■ thy recluse for some eight years past. j "Three years ago," observed Mrs. Field, ' "he told me he had made a will and I should benefit by it. He said if anything happened to him documents would be found in a chest of drawers, but no will has been discovered. Recently he was upset at re- , ceivMig from Dartford a summons in respect/ of rates, and he died two days later." The jury found that death was due to syncope, and the lawyers are now engaged upon the problem of- the disposal of his wealth.