GREAT BENEFACTOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 13

GREAT BENEFACTOR

GIFTS TO HOSPITAL j FINAL SUM OF £85,675 MR. MEYERSTEIN'S CHEQUE By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received October 19, 6.5 p.m.) British Wireless RUGBI, Oct. 18 The appeal for funds for the reconstruction of the Middlesex Hospital, London, lias been completed and the large sum of £1,200,000 has been raised. The last contribution to the fund was made by Mr. Edward Meyerstein who already had contributed £30,000 for a new department for radio therapy and £70,000 to enable the board to proceed with the final section of the hospital. On taking his seat yesterday on the board of the hospital Mr. Meyerstein informed his fellow members that he proposed to give himself a present. He was fond of pictures and it was a picture —the poster outside the hospital —which he desired to possess. That picture showed what was still needed to complete the new hospital, namely £85,675. If Prince Arthur of Connaught, chairman of the board, and the other members, approved, Mr. Meyerstein said, he would give them a cheque for that amount and take the poster down. Thereupon he wrote out a cheque for the amount named.

Mr. Meyerstein is a well known philanthropist. He celebrated his /oth birthday by buying a £IO,OOO estate in Kent foi; conversion into a maternity home.

Mr. Edward William Meyerstein formerly was a stockbroker in London. He was born in 1864. After a long and lucrative career on the Stock Exchange he retired to his home near Sevenoaks, Kent. He became one of the governors of the Middlesex Hospital which was in need of rebuilding and extension. In March, 1934, he took to the hospital in person a gift of £30,000. It is related that he went in a taxicab and on arrival had to borrow the fare. In the same month his offer of £IO,OOO to the Sevenoaks and Holmesdale Hospital was declined at a meeting of its subscribers. The chairman had threatened that the board would resign if the donor's conditions for the gift were accepted. Mr. Meyerstein celebrated his 70th birthday by buying for £IO,OOO the estate in Sevenoaks which at his own expense he equipped as a nursing home where the charges were to be five guineas a week. His intention was to place a first-class nursing home at the disposal of those who could not afford high fees. In July, 1934, he sent to Prince Arthur of Connaught, chairman of the Middlesex Hospital, a cheque for £70,000 as a contribution toward the completion of the buildings. He had been informed that the final portion of the work could not be started unless the hospital had £60,000 or £70,000. Mr. Meyerstein is said to regard his money as a means of making other people happy. He is very, fond of children and often entertains a garden full of them.