MASKED LADY’S BAG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 8

MASKED LADY’S BAG

BENEVOLENT “GANG.” WEIGHED DOWN WITH SIVEB. Anonymity is a quality not unknown among donors of gifts to tho National Trust, but rarely, says tho Times, is generosity concealed by a disguise so mysterious as that assumed by the benefactors who recently gave Shalford Mill, near Guildford, to the Trust. These donors are known to the Trust as “Ferguson’s Gang.” Experience shows that they are not “gangsters” of the type that have haunted Chicago or engaged in smash-and-grab raids in the West End and other parts of London although one of their number, a masked lady, recently astonished officials of the Trust when she made a flying visit to tho office in Buckingham Palace Gardens. But she speedily proved that her mission was one of beneficence. Without lifting her mask she gave £lOO in silver to the secretary as an instalment of the Chaiford Mill endowment and then fled, leaving the officials more mystified than ever concerning the “gang.” Shalford Mill is an early eighteenth centurv watermill in th© village of Shalford on tho Tillingbourne stream. The National Trust, in announcing the gift, stated:— “It has been given to the Trust by tho anonymous members of ‘Ferguson’s Gang,’ who have, moreover, endowed it that it may be kept in good condition. The mill has now been made habitable, and is the much appreciated residence of a tenant, of the National Trust. Major Goodwin Austin, whoso family has long owned the mill, earned tho warm gratitude of the Trust during the preliminary negotiations in this matter, while tho members of the ‘Gang,’ who have roared like any sucking doves, must be thanked "collectively and severally for their generosity.” Since then the story has developed with the adventure of the “masked lady,” whose surprise visit to .the office is described as follows in the Bulletin of the National Trust: —

“On January 13, when the day about Victoria was slipping into an unpleasant evening, cold and wet, a taxicab stopped outside 7 Buckingham Palace Gardens. A lady, heavily masked, got out and announced herself to the commissionaire as ‘Red Biddy’ of “Ferguson’s Gang.’ She was bent with the weight of a heavy bag and desired to see the secretary, with whom, without lifting her mask, she deposited £lOO in silver as the first instalment of the Shalford Mill endowment. She left, as she had conic, recognised by no one.”

Officials of the National Trust are wondering about “Ferguson’s Gang.” and when “Red Biddy” will make another call with a further instalment toward the endowment of the. property of which she and the other members of tho gang are the generous donors.