POSTMAN BUILDS HOSPITAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 263, 27 January 1928, Page 12

POSTMAN BUILDS HOSPITAL

HIS WORK TO HELP LEPERS Ninety days’ special leave has been granted by the authorities to Francis Cardmal aged 59, a London postman® a^hnsmtL’w* 01 Indla recently to open a hospital for women lepers built with rSl!t’ , £ lnt savin % s o£ himself and Mrs. ■i'u' !er ’ a P°°r North London woman. ihe romantic circumstances of this gift , were related to a “Daily chron‘cle J representative by Mr. W. H. P. Anderson, general secretary of the Mission to Lepers. “Cardinal has been a postman for > ears delivering letters in the Goswe! Road area,” he said, “but previous to this work he saw much service abroad. It was while he was in India that he came into contact with the mission to lepers, and saw something of the horrors which the lepers suffered. Friend of His Youth “When he returned from abroad he found he had lost most of his relatives, but he discovered a friend in a Mrs. Fletcher, who had known him in his youth. She was old enough to be his mother, and was 80 years of age when she died recently. “After serving in South Africa and in the late war Cardinal took up his duties in the postal service, and irvrd at Mrs. Fletcher’s house in Nortn London. Both the old woman and tile postman used to send a regular subscription to our Mission for Lepers “When Mrs. Fletcher died it was found that her small savings had amounted to about £7O. This money was brought to us by Cardinal, who said it was the woman’s wish that it should be devoted to the mission. “Unfortunately, there was no will and as Cardinal was Insistent, the matter was placed before the official referee. He was puzzled, as we made no claim to the money, and Cardinal said he did not want it himself. “The referee decided that with equal savings on the part of Cardinal, the joint money could be devoted to the mission. The result has been that the postman has added sufficient for a cottage hospital for women lepers to be built at the Manamadura leper colony. “The hospital is to be named jointly after Mrs. Fletcher and Cardinal. During the war Cardinal was a ser-geant-major in the Sth Post Office Rifles.