On 4th October 2008, William, the 9th Earl of Radnor was elected to be the new Governor of the French Hospital. For more details please click here
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".