3-065-567 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Confirmation by the Bishop of London at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption, 1874. The Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest...is one of the most important medical charities in London. It has given relief to more than 200,000 patients suffering from the malady which is most fatal to working-class people of this crowded city, and which is the cause of prolonged misery through loss of earnings from interruption of their daily labour...the beautiful little church or chapel of St. Luke, belonging to this hospital, was the scene of a solemn and touching ceremony...the Bishop of London administered the holy rite of confirmation to between thirty and forty candidates, nearly all of whom were patients...The Rev. Arthur Brook, Vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton, officiated as chaplain to the Bishop. The candidates were presented by the Rev. J. Hughes Owen, the chaplain of the hospital; the Rev. E. B. Allen, B. A., ...chaplain of the institution, was also present. A peculiar incident of this ceremony was the fact of the Bishop being obliged to confirm, in her own seat, one of the candidates, a young girl, who was too ill to advance to the altar rail, and who was obliged, after the rite, at once to retire, assisted by one of the nurses'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.