“THE PRINCE OF BEGGARS”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23002, 3 October 1936, Page 4

“THE PRINCE OF BEGGARS”

LORD KNUTSFORD’S WORK “Sydney Holland, Lord Knutsford; A Memoir.” By John Gore. Illustrated. London: Murray, 11s. Sydney Holland, who became the second Lord Knutsford, was a great grandson of the famous Sydney Smith. There weft other interesting ancestors, including his grandfather, Sir Henry Holland, who was a physician-in-or-dinary to Queen Victoria. His father had a successful career and became Colonial Secretary in 1886 to which he added a peerage two years later. Although Sydney Holland showed every promise of a successful career at the bar, he finally concentrated on his real life’s work in hospital organisation and hospital finance, which became his passion. A visit to the Poplar Hospital was the starting point in this devotion to a great cause. He found the place filthy and verminous and the patients half starved. When the Hospital Committee declined to act and told Holland to put things right, if he could, he acted promptly. Within a short time he dismissed the matron and staff, rebuilt the hospital, raised £70,000 and provided 103 beds instead of 36, and increased the reserve fund from £8 to £54,000. He then joined the London Hospital Committee and became chairman. His work from then on reads like a fairy tale. In the course of his strenuous life he raised over £5,000,000 for this great hospital, and by his thousands of letters every year by way of appeal he justly earned the title of “Prince of Beggars.” The book contains many humorous incidents of his experiences in collecting. He became almost a legendary figure in the East and West Ends of London. He was a keen sportsman aiid some of „his experiences as a stalker make excellent reading. His family life was ideally happy and his hospitality and gift of humour gathered round him hosts of friends in all walks of life from royalty to dock labourers. The author has written a charming memoir of a fine character. 5 W . D . S .