              Copyright
Helen Forder
2007
|
| The Death of Lord
Llanofer |
| From The Cambrian, May
3rd 1867 |
| Lord
Llanover expired at his Town Residence, Great
Stanhope Street, May Fair, London, on Saturday
last, the 27th instant. His death was preceded by
extreme suffering after two painful operations
for a tumour in the cheek, which resulted after a
blow occasioned by the rebound of a new gun which
occurred twice within a short period on the same
place, but which was not at the time considered
of any consequence. He was in the most perfect
health up to the 29th December last, when he was
advised to undergo a surgical operation of a very
painful nature, which he supported with wonderful
fortitude, and afterwards manifested such a
vigour of constitution, and his health was still
so perfect, that his medical advisors were
confident that he would be able to support a
second operation on the 21st of January, which it
was expected would complete the desired result of
eradicating the remains of the tumour. His
Lordship, with equal fortitude, underwent the
last operation, but although his health and
vigour were still long maintained to a degree
which even astonished his surgical attendants,
the wound did not heal, and at length his
wonderful strength began to fail from extreme
pain and the increased difficulty of taking food,
at last enfeebled his robust constitution, until
his sufferings were closed by death from pain and
exhaustion. The death of Lord Llanover will cause
universal regret. Few public men have been better
known than the late noble Lord in the political
world, and the loss of none will be more deeply
felt in the neighbourhood of his own home, where
he was unostentatiously the friend, benefactor,
and supporter of all those about him. |
| Lord
Llanover was educated at Westminster, and entered
as Gentleman Commoner at Christchurch, Oxford. He
entered Parliament as a member for Monmouth in
1831. In November 1837, he was elected for the
borough of Marylebone, which he continued to
represent until June, 1859, when he was elevated
to the Peerage. In 1854, he accepted the office
of President to the Board of Health, and during
his tenure of that office the cholera raged in
London. The metropolis was deserted by almost all
those who had the power of leaving it, but Lord
Llanover (then Sir Benjamin Hall) stood firm at
his post, visiting the worst districts and those
streets where the black flags were put up to shew
that they were the most infected localities, and
by his energy and promptitude, and the measures
he took against contagion and for the interment
of the many who fell victims at the time to that
awful visitation, he deserved and acquired the
gratitude of the public. He afterwards accepted
the post of First Commisioner of Works, and
during his tenure of that office he introduced
the measure for the local government of the
metropolis under which the present Metropolitan
Board of Works was elected, and he made those
extensive improvements in the parks of London
which will long be associated with his name.
Amongst them was the cleansing of the water in
St. James's Park, and its reduction in depth, so
that no loss of life could occur by the ice
breaking under skaters in the winter season,
whilst the artificial bottom which was formed of
cement, facilitated the cleansing and preserving
of pure water during the summer months, instead
of the poisonous and noxious fluid which that
lake had previously contained. |
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