IN BEDROOM TWENTY YEARS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 May 1917, Page 7

IN BEDROOM TWENTY YEARS.

DEATH OF ECCENTRIC CENTENARIAN OF FAMOUS NAME. . The death has occurred at Hereford of Lieutenant Francis Anderson, in his 100 th year. It is 42 years since he first took up his residence in the city, and for exactly half that period he kept to his bedroom. Only once during the last 21 years had he, been out of doors, and that was when his landlady ohanged her residence, and then he was wrapped up in blankets and conveyed in a closed carriage. That occasion was his only peep at ithe outside world, except what could be obtained from a bedroom window. During all these 21 years he had had no illness. He had all his meals either in or at the side of his bed; he was a heavy smoker. For the past 14 years a doctor called once a month, not because he required any doctoring, for he enjoyed the best of health, but to avoid the holding of an inquest at death. He read the newspapers until the last week without the aid of glnsses, and delighted to revel in matters dealing with Royalty or high personages. The progress of the war greatly interested him, and he plastered the walls of his bedroom with the pictures in the illustrated papers. Lieutenant Anderson, who was a bachelor, was the son of the famous Scotch general of that name who owned extonsive estates in Perthshire. His sister was the late Dowager Lady Outram, who also passed away in her 100 th year. Born 'Margaret Clementina Anderson, she married her cousin, Sir James Outram, the great Indian soldier, whom Napier christened the "Bayard of India." The families of Anderson and Outram are two of the oldest and most Honored in Scotland.