The French Hospital

The Directors / Governor

Brief History of the Directors

Lord Radnor with the Directors
[Photo by Trevor Moore]

The Hospital for poor French Protestants and their descendants residing in Great Britain arose from a bequest made in 1708 by a Huguenot refugee, Jacques de Gastigny, Master of the King's Buckhounds at the court of King William and Queen Mary, and was granted a Royal charter by George I in 1718.

For more than two hundred and fifty years "La Providence", as poor refugees and their families called it, provided shelter and care "for those among us who are in distress", first near the City of London and from 1865 in Hackney. Its present home, La Providence in Rochester, was opened in 1960 after restoration and re-arrangement into flats housing elderly people of Huguenot descent, who require private accommodation but with help always at hand in sickness and emergency.

Under a new charter granted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 the direction of "La Providence" remains in the hands of a Governor, Deputy Governor and Directors, who are honoured to maintain this "monument to the piety of their ancestors".

Earl of Radnor, [Governor]

The Governor

On 4th October 2008, William, the 9th Earl of Radnor was elected to be the new Governor of the French Hospital.

William 9th Earl of Radnor is the elder son of Jacob, 8th Earl of Radnor, born in 1955, educated at Harrow and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, William Pleydell-Bouverie, then Viscount Folkestone, developed his knowledge of the great art collection and the other treasures at Longford, as a furniture specialist at Christie's, later becoming the firm's representative in Wiltshire.

He married Melissa Stanford in 1996 and they are now the parents of four sons and two daughters. The family have long and major property interests in Kent, notably in Folkestone, and Lord Radnor is deeply involved in the developments there, and is a Trustee of the Metropolitan Art Centre Trust, organisers of the major Triennial Exhibition.

His time will now be even more taken up with the great estate of Longford Castle. As family man, businessman and a landed proprietor, he is to be especially welcomed as Governor of the French Hospital, since he agreed to be proposed for election out of a sense of duty to the institution which his family have served for so long, with perhaps a measure of filial piety. As he has written "I look forward to seeing more of you in the future, and although I am aware that my father will be a hard act to follow I will do my best". It is most pleasing to all of us that he will be with us for so many years to come.