Autograph letter signed by Millicent Garrett Fawcett about Tuberculosis 1904

FAWCETT, Millicent Garrett (1847-1929). Autograph letter signed, regarding a Sanatorium for poor women with Tuberculosis.
 
2 Gower Street, 5 January 1904.
 
1 sheet folded (forming 4 pages), approx. 180 x 115 mm. The letter discussing arrangements connected with a tuberculosis sanatorium scheme in East Anglia. Old horizontal fold as expected from posting; light overall toning; a few minor creases, but a clean and well-preserved very good example.
 
Fawcett writes shortly after returning from a sanatorium visit (“I have come back from the San…”), describing with approval newly erected “shanties” and setting out a proposed funding structure for further expansion. She notes that accommodation for sixteen women could be established for about 400 pounds, and proposes that “Percy Walker, Jennie, you and I would give 100 pounds each and set this thing going”. The letter refers to provision for poor women and outlines a scheme intended to extend access beyond private patients.
 
The context is the early development of the East Anglian Sanatorium at Nayland, established under Dr Jane Walker for the open-air treatment of tuberculosis. In 1904 a separate department for poorer patients (Maltings Farm Sanatorium) was introduced, and the present letter corresponds closely with that moment of expansion, providing contemporary evidence of private initiative and funding behind the extension of treatment facilities.
 
Although best known for her leadership of the constitutional suffrage movement, Fawcett was also active in wider social reform, and this letter shows her directly engaged in practical organisation and financial support of medical provision, rather than purely political advocacy.