NURSE’S BIG LEGACY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 2

NURSE’S BIG LEGACY

SERVICE AND DEVOTION BEQUEST OF £15,000 WAR-TIME INCIDENT RECALLED • Behind the announcement of a handsome legacy of £15,000 which has come to a Scots nurse in recognition of many years of service and devotion to a South American merchant lies tho untold story of a drama in a war-time hospital. For the past .10 years Sister Margaret Nicholl Caird has watched unceasingly over tho health of her employer. Mr. George Cox, formerly of Rose, Innes, Cox and Company, of Valparaiso, who amassed a largo fortune. Every morning a Rolls Royce would draw up outside his Hat in Queen s Gate Place and the tall old man of 90 would enter tho car with his nurse. In January of this year Mr. Cox died leaving a fortune of £156,997, and now it has been announced that Sister Caird is to have her reward—incidentally it will also bo a reward for her bravery in a war-time incident. When sho was 32 site joined the Rod Cross in 191+ and was sent to the war hospital at Hayling Island recently said a friend. “There she experienced tho most terrifying incident of her life. An officer who had been badly wounded suddenly hud a mental collapse under the strain of his sufferings. “No one discovered how the man gained possession of a revolver, but Sister C:/rd suddenly camo upon him as he <<ts about to ahoot himself. She tried at first io soothe him. but when the moment camo sho closed with him j in a struggle for possession of the weapon. The noise of tho struggle brought others to her aid, and the officer was over-powered. “How many lives she saved besides

her own no one will know, but sho was awarded tho Royal Red Cross Medal, and in 1919 left the service to enter King George Hospital in Stamford Street.”

Sister Caird has left her present ail dress and only two or three friends know where she is staying. Every post brings bags of letters from people all over the country offering her propositions for making hundreds per cent on their own pet investments. Tho total amount asked for by the. beggars is more than her legacy! Sho comes from Dundee, where she was trained, and perhaps a little two-seater ear will soon bo seen humming up the Great North Road carrying not Sister Caird the nurse, but Miss M. N. Caird on holiday for tho rest of her life.