Page "William Ewart Gladstone" Paragraph 111

Upon the advice of his doctor Samuel Habershon in the aftermath of an attack of facial neuralgia, Gladstone stayed at Cannes from the end of November 1897 to mid-February 1898.

He gave an interview for The Daily Telegraph ( published on 5 January 1898 as ' Personal Recollections of Arthur H. Hallam ').

Gladstone then went to Bournemouth, and a swelling on the palate was diagnosed as cancer by the leading cancer surgeon, Sir Thomas Smith on 18 March.

On 22 March he retired to Hawarden Castle.

Despite being in pain he received visitors and quoted hymns, especially Cardinal Newman's ' Praise to the Holiest in the Height '.

His last public statement was dictated to his daughter Helen in reply to receiving the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford's " sorrow and affection ": " There is no expression of Christian sympathy that I value more than that of the ancient University of Oxford, the God-fearing and God-sustaining University of Oxford.

I served her perhaps mistakenly, but to the best of my ability.

My most earnest prayers are hers to the uttermost and to the last ".

He left the house for the last time on 9 April and after 18 April he did not come down to the ground floor but still came out of bed to lie on the sofa.

The Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane George Wilkinson recorded when he ministered to him along with Stephen Gladstone: