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Copyright
Helen Forder
2007
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The Death of Lord Llanofer
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From The Cambrian, May 3rd 1867
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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.
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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 Commissioner
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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