HOSPITAL GIFTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20106, 27 March 1928, Page 3

HOSPITAL GIFTS

UNKNOWN LADY’S VISITS LARGE SUM DISTRIBUTED. A mysterious lady known as the Secret Donor, has, during recent weeks, distributed nearly £3UUO among five London hospitals without revealing her identity.

Hospital officials are completely baffled. All they can say is that she is an elderly woman, rather poorly dressed in black, with a cheery voice and a charming and self-possessed manner.

She walks into the hospitals, hands the secretary a brown paper parcel, and hurries away, without giving her name or address. The parcels always contain gold or Treasury notes —sometimes both. Twice these donations have totalled £BOO.

At midday the Secret Donor walked into the Westminster Hospital and handed Mr C. M. Power, the secretary, a box wrappad in brown paper. “I wish to give this to the hospital on behalf of my late sister and Thyself, as a little token of appreciation for your splendid work,” she said. Thinking it contained tin-foil, the secretary opened the box. It contained £BOO in £1 Treasury notes. The woman refused to give her name and address, but, in reply to Mr Power’s question, confessed that she was responsible for the mysterious bundles of Treasury notes which, during the previous few weeks, had been appearing in the collecting boxes outside the hospital. As these bundles totalled over £l5O the Secret Donor has now given the Westminster Hospital nearly £lOOO. Before leaving she expressed the desire that others would follow her examp*-'. The following are the mystery woman’s other gifts:—Royal Northern Hospital.—Left parcel containing £B4O in notes. Charing Cross Hospital.— Handed Mr Philip Inman, the superintendent, an old cash box containing £549 10s; £4O in gold found in collecting box outside the hospital. Middlesex Cancer Hospital.—Presented secretary with cash box containing £9O in gold. West London Hospital.—Delivered a tin box with £173 10s in gold and notes. The description of the Lady Bountiful given by the five secretaries is identical.