Mrs. Whitcombe’s long and energetic work for the Society is well known and she will be sorely missed by countless numbers of the sick poor, not only in the borough but around the whole countryside. Through the Society Mrs. Whitcombe was able to provide clothing for destitute patients who from long illness had been reduced to poverty and whose circumstances justified such assistance and nourishment and other pressing requirements were also supplied in cases of need; whilst hundred of patients have benefited by being sent away to the sea for convalescence. It was perhaps in this particular branch of the work that Mrs. Whitcombe was best known to the poor, for every year between 70 and 80 debilitated patients were sent to various convalescent homes. So large hearted was Mrs. Whitcombe that it did not matter where the patients hailed from: in fact quite half the patients came from Northfleet and Perry Street and the surrounding villages on both sides of the river.

Mrs. Whitcombe was particularly interested in the maternity side of the work and many mothers have been thankful to her for boxes of clothes lent and for kindly help at a time of great need. A glance at the 20th Annual Report of the Samaritan Society shows that considerably over £150 was expended during 1914 on the alleviation of distress and in helping the sick during that year, compared to £8 expended in 1889, the first year that Mrs. Whitcombe took over the work.’

‘She was very dignified, well turned out and pretty – the tea would be served with great ceremony and with a lovely lace cloth and she gave us a shilling – or it might have been half a crown.’

I write again now to tell you about Trot. You know she has for a long time been in a bad state of health. Recently she has suffered a good deal from that swelling outside the throat which you remember. She was last week persuaded to see a private throat surgeon on the subject. He at once said it was most serious and that she might be suffocated at any moment, that at most she could not survive a couple of years if the swelling was not at once removed by an operation.

She determined at once to undergo the operation. She took lodging in Harley Street close to the Dr’s house on Tuesday last and there at 5 o’clock that evening the operation was performed. There were two Doctors and two nurses. It appears to have been very severe pain – Trot fainted twice once so long and so seriously that the Drs were frightened. That night of course she was in a sinking state and so she was all the next day and night. Her weakness seems to have been much greater than the Drs anticipated. The operation consisted in emptying the lump and setting up inflammation in it. This has to be done again and would have been done already had she not been so weak. They are afraid to risk another bad fainting fit.

She is now therefore being fed up to meet the rest of the operation. I see her every morning and evening. This morning, Friday, she seemed decidedly better and had much less pain in the wounded part. She is, however, very nervous and depressed about herself and very much dreads the pain which she must endure when the next stage in the operation is reached. The Dr said she would have to be under him 3 weeks but this delay may defer this cure till a later date. All I can tell you about her is that she is making very good progress – but we shall be all very anxious till she is really convalescent which is at present far from being the case.’