Description
Autograph Letter Signed, regretting he can not accept his correspondent’s invitation, hoping to hear that Mr. Osborne has been summoned (as was MacDonald) to give evidence before the Roebuck Committee. 2 pp. 7 x 4½ inches, folds, in good condition. Temple, undated. John Cameron MacDonald, engineer and later manager of The Times, became almoner to the Times Crimea Fund. On her arrival at Scutari, Florence Nightingale embarked on radical changes to the medical arrangements. The public funds were hedged with bureaucratic procedures, and she had to meet costs partly from her own funds and partly through donations made by MacDonald from the Times fund. She and MacDonald evolved a close working relationship, and the fund became a powerful weapon against official incompetence. As a result the newspaper was subjected to a campaign of vilification from elements in the establishment, who either denied that things were as bad as reported or imputed base motives for the paper’s involvement.