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A Blind Man who Became Postmaster-General of England · Stories of Grit

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  Chapter nine of the Stories of Grit. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Winnifred Asman. Stories of Grit by
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  Archer Wallace, a blind man who became Postmaster General of England on August twenty
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  sixth, eighteen thirty three, just four years before Queen Victoria began to reign.
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  Henry Fawcett was born at Salisbury, England. He was sent to a
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  Dames school, where he did not get on very well. The teacher said
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  that he had a head like a colander, and he was so slow in
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  learning his lessons that he became known as the dunce of the class. Young
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  Harry himself admitted that he did not enjoy school. He loved to be out
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  in the open and in the woods, but he went like a snail unwillingly
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  to school. There was one thing which never failed him, and that was
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  his appetite. He was always complaining that he did not get enough to eat.
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  When his family moved away from Salisbury, Harry went to a boarding school,
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  and in nearly every letter he wrote home he said he was nearly starving.
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  In one letter to his mother, he said, please, when the
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  family has quite finished with the ham bone, sent it on to me.
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  However, in spite of his complaints, he grew stronger and bigger every day,
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  until by the time he was ten, he was several inches taller than
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  his schoolmates of his own age. When he was fourteen, he was sent
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  to a school known as Queenwood College, and he began to take more interest
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  in his studies. He worked hard while at this school, and when he
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  was nineteen he entered the famous Cambridge University. Henry Fawcett was popular with the
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  other students from the first day that he entered Cambridge. He was very tall,
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  over six feet three inches in height, and he moved around the college
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  halls and over the campus with enormous long strides. He had an exceedingly happy
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  and good natured disposition and was welcome everywhere. His greatest ambition in life was
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  to fit himself for service as a member of the British Parliament. He desired
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  to enter Parliament for no other reason than that of serving his fellow men.
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  There were so many laws which seemed to him to be cruel and unjust so
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  many heavy burdens weighing upon the shoulders of the poorer classes, that he longed
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  with all his heart to be in a position where he could help to make
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  things better. In order to fit himself for parliament, he began to study
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  law, but he had considerable trouble with his eyes. This was so serious
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  that he was forbidden to do any reading until they were better. He did
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  not complain, but obeyed the physicians orders. He went to stay with his
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  family at Salisbury. It was during this visit that a terrible thing happened.
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  On the morning of September fifteenth of eighteen fifty eight, he and his father
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  began to climb Harnum Hill, from which a very fine view of the surrounding
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  country could be obtained. Both father and son had their guns, for they
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  hoped to secure some partridge. As they were crossing a field, Henry advanced
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  in front of his father. A partridge arose, and the father, who
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  did not see just how near Henry, was fired and some of the stray
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  shot entered Henry's eyes, and from that moment until his death, he was
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  totally blind. Henry Fawcett was just twenty five when this terrible accident happened.
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  He was taken back to his father's house in a cart. He remained perfectly
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  calm as he listened to the doctor's verdict. The curtain had fallen, and
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  never again could he see the thing which other people saw, nor read the
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  books and papers he so dearly loved. But from that day until his death
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  twenty six years later, no one ever heard him complain nor give any outward
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  sign of the terrible disappointment which he must have felt. He did not wish
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  people to openly sympathize with him, and the scores of letters which he received
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  from well meaning people intended to console him in his misfortune really gave him pain.
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  He wanted people to forget that he was blind and treat him as one
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  of themselves. He straightway determined that he would continue to prepare himself to serve
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  the people in Parliament. He knew that he was handicapped in such manner as
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  perhaps no other statesman had ever been. Still, he showed a courage and
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  perseverance which was extraordinary. Soon after his accident, he began to walk about
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  in the open. He naturally stumbled at his first step. When some one
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  caught him by the arm to pick him up. He said, lee me
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  alone. I got to learn to walk without seeing, and I mean to
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  begin at once. Only tell me when I am going off the road.
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  All who knew Henry Fawcett at this time bear witness to his amazing courage and
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  cheerfulness. If he had a heavy heart, he said nothing of it to
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  others. Especially was this true in his relations with his father and mother.
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  Whenever he was with them, he was the life of the home, full
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  of mischief as a schoolboy, and with a hearty laugh that made the house
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  ring. I want to live to be niney, he said, and he
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  meant it. He was the soul of kindness and good nature. No one
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  ever knew him to say a cruel or unkind thing, or to spread a
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  report that would injure any one. Throughout his life he sought to promote good
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  will and understanding, and he was never happier than when he was helping some
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  one who was in difficulty. He had a remarkable memory for voices, that
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  is, a faculty which often becomes acute in lying people. It was said
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  of him that if he heard a voice once, he never forgot it.
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  Sometimes, when spoken to by a person whom he had not heard for many
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  years. A puzzled look would cross his face, but it would suddenly clear
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  up as he called the person by name. His sense of hearing became so
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  keen that he could tell when his friends were not feeling as well as usual
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  from their voices. Often he would startle them by saying, what's the matter
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  with you to day? You're looking pale? A man who had not been
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  near him for twenty years once spoke to him, and without a moment's hesitation,
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  Fawcett called him by name. Henry Fawcett made two unsuccessful attempts to enter
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  Parliament. He was defeated in Cambridge in eighteen sixty three by only eighty one
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  votes, and a few months later he was defeated in Brighton. Many people
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  voted against him because they thought that blindness was too severe a handicap for any
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  man to become really useful in that great Assembly. He himself did not think
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  so, however, and he made a third attempt in eighteen sixty five,
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  when he was thirty two years of age, and this time he was elected.
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  It was a proud day for Henry Fawcett when he entered Parliament after he
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  became blind. No one, not even those who loved him most, believed
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  that it was possible. Only a determination that absolutely refused to be thwarted,
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  made his election possible. Surrounded by many of the greatest statesmen of the nineteenth
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  century, the blind man quietly took his place in Parliament. During his first
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  session there he said very little. He had to learn the ways of Parliament,
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  which is a difficult task for any one, and made much harder in
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  his case. He made his first speech in March eighteen sixty six. Unlike
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  most men, he had no notes to help him. He had to rely
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  altogether upon his fire memory. His speech was listened to with rapt attention.
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  The picture of this tall, sightless man with earnest voice and manner cast a
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  spell over the house, and even those who disagreed with him were deeply impressed
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  by his fine appearance and earnest manner. In the years which followed, Henry
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  Fawcett made a great many speeches in Parliament. He was, by no means
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  a silent member. In every good cause which came up for discussion. His
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  voice was heard, and always on the side of those who needed help,
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  not only the struggling people of the British Isles interested him. But for several
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  years he fought very hard on behalf of the poor people in far off India.
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  He became such a champion of the Indians that he was nicknamed the Member
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  for India, and he received many letters expressing deep gratitude from those people whom
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  he could never hope to see. He entered into a great many political battles,
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  but there was one thing which even his opponents admitted that was he never
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  sought anything for himself. He labored hard to help those whose lot he considered
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  was less fortunate than his own. In eighteen eighty Henry Fawcett was made Postmaster
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  General of England, a position of very great importance and responsibility. There were
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  over ninety thousand employees under the administration of the Post Office. One bright spring
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  day, Henry Fawcett took up his duties at the General Post Office. He
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  was introduced to the heads of the various departments and to those next in rank.
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  As he began to warmly shake the hands of all to whom he was
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  being introduced, some one whispered to him, it is not usual for her
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  Majesty's Postmaster General to shake hands with any one in the office below the rank
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  of head of a department. It took a good deal to make Henry Fawcett
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  indignant, but that remark pretty nearly did it. He said, suppose I
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  am at liberty to make what use I like of my own hands. He
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  took a very great interest in all who in any way served the Post Office.
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  From the first day that he took over his position, he labored hard
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  to improve working conditions. He interested himself in every employee, and nothing ever
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  seemed too much trouble to this blind man of almost infinite patience and sympathy.
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  No doubt his wonderful kindness meant that some took unfair advantage of him, But
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  he found his supreme happiness in realizing that never before in the history of the
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  great English post office system had the work been done so thoroughly and to the
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  satisfaction of the public. One of the great statesmen of that day said that
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  the Post Office could never have a more capable Postmaster General, nor its officers
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  a truer friend. In December eighteen eighty three, he was taken seriously ill
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  with diphtheria, and this was followed by yphoid fever. For a while his
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  life was despaired of, and it illustrates what a large place in the life
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  of his country the blind man had filled to know that all England read the
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  bulletins which told of his condition. The Queen herself telegraphed every day and sometimes
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  oftener. Mister Fawcett recovered from this illness and was soon at work again as
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  hard as ever. The following year he was honored with degrees from many great
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  universities, including Oxford and Glasgow. Then in November eighteen eighty four, he
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  was taken suddenly ill and quietly passed away in the presence of his wife and
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  daughter and several friends. He who had lived in total darkness for nearly thirty
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  years, years in which he was never once heard to murmur or complain,
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  passed into the eternal light of God's presence. A whole nation moorned deeply.
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  When this man of such magnificent courage was laid to rest in the quiet churchyard
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  at Salisbury, where he had been born, Tributes to his memory were paid
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  to him by the greatest in the land. Queen Victoria wrote a most touching
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  letter to his widow, and the Honorable W. E. Gladstone said that
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  no man had become more deeply enshrined in the memory of his fellow countrymen.
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  The terrible handicap of blindness had not prevented Henry Fawcett from becoming one of the
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  greatest men of his generation. End of Chapter nine.