Dean's Life-for His Cathedral

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17982, 29 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

Dean's Life-for His Cathedral

Dr. Fry of Lincoln Gives His Last Days to Restoration of Cathedral.

The Dean of Lincoln, Dr. T. C. Fry, died at Lincoln, 10 days after returning from a visit to South America to raise funds for the restoration of Lincoln Cathedral. He was taken ill while abroad on the task to which he devoted the last 20 years of his life. He had twice visited the United States to appeal for money to save the cathedral and had raised more than £IOO,OOO. Dr. Fry, who was aged 83, and was a! commanding figure with a long white beard, declared in his last public utterance, “I should like to see ithe cathedral finished before I die.” i in his farewell sermon before leaving for South America last October the dean said: “It may be that I shall find it not so easy to return as I do to go. Maybe next year you will have a new dean, but he could not love the cathedral more dearly or wish more sincerely to help the people of Lincoln in their needs. If we can get £20,000 we shall have no need to worry about the future. What else can I do? I must leave the cathedral

sound. Whether I leave myself sound or not is a matter of no moment. “Nearly Ready to Jazz!” It was said that Dr. Fry made Berkhamsted School, of which he was headmaster from 1887 to 1910. He was then appointed Dean of Lincoln, with the qualification of being an excellent man of business, and at once leapt; into prominence. He led the movement for interesting the civilised world in the work of restoration. He stirred the imagination of England, the Dominions, and the United States when he told them that there were seven miles of cracks in the fabric, “the flower of English Gothic.” On his first visit to Canada and the United States, when he was more than 70 years old, he raised neary £6OOO. “I fee very nearly ready to jazz in the cathedral," he exclaimed in 1926 when he announced a gift of £7650 by an Americam. The Dean will be buried near his wife in Lincoln -Cathedral Cloister.