FRANCIS.
J.J.K.C. CONTINUATION.
Recording occurred in 1895, when he was commended for his part in the great epidemic of bubonic plague in 1894.
For this he was presented with a silver inscribed inkstand by the authorities but returned it as he did not consider the recognition accorded with the circumstances. In a chronicle of the times, the following reference to the affair occurs:
"On May 22 (1895) the Government, by direction of the Marquis of Ripon, forwarded to Mr. J. J. Francis Q.C. the Chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board, a silver inkstand in recognition of the services rendered by him during the aforesaid plague epidemic. Mr. Francis had previously been thanked both by the Governor and by the Secretary of State for his services. Mr. Francis, however, considered himself slighted by the treatment he had received as compared with Mr. May who had been his colleague on the Committee. Under the circumstances he returned the inkstand considering the gift so ludicrously inadequate to the services rendered by him, setting forth his view of the matter in a letter which he addressed to the Government on May 27, and which he afterwards forwarded to the press for publication."
It should be explained that the Mr. May referred to was Mr. (afterwards Sir) F. H. May then Captain Superintendent of Police and afterwards Governor of the Colony. In recognition of his services during the epidemic Mr. May had the C.M.G. conferred on him, and received the insignia at the hands of Queen Victoria while on leave in England.
Mr. Francis, when well on in years, added to his popularity with the community in general by lecturing on various subjects before the Odd Volumes Society, and other audiences, including the Chamber of Commerce and gathering in the City Hall, his range of subjects extending from the Crown Colonies, in 1889 to Vasco da Gama (in 1898). He lived so long in the Colony as to bring his career to within the memory of many now residing here, and it seems strange that so well-known a man should not be commemorated in any tangible way.
313.