Another fascinating article about the Hop-Picking from The Springing Well 1899.
His life is described in The Railway Signal (August 1891) pp.153-4 From the Census records he appears to have been born in 1851 and I suspect that he didn't live long after 1891. He was a member of Spurgeon's congregation. The account of his life is accessible at
Timothy
Here are all the William Luffs I could find in the National Probate Calendar between 1931 and 1951. Was he one of these?
Not Lost, but Gone Before. MRS. SARAH ELIZA LUFF. ON Saturday, November 30th, [1907], my beloved mother entered into rest, after great suffering through bronchitis, at the full age of eighty years. Converted in the early days of C. H. Spurgeon, she used to take me to Park Street Chapel to hear the young preacher. At the Surrey Music Hall, and afterwards at the Metropolitan Tabernacle where we were regular attendants. She constantly prayed for and with her boy until he was able to tell her the prayer was answered. She now became anxious that the son should devote his life to God's service, and she has lived to see that fulfilled. In her lifetime, she was no religious talker, but in her death for many hours, she spake of her Lord, telling us to "Just listen and wait." Some of these last utterances we jotted down to God's praise. "Father, I do want to come home to Thee," she said. Several times she quoted the Prayer Book version of Psalm cvii. 30, "So He bringeth them into the haven where they would be." At one time, we sang to her: "Jesu, Lover of my Soul," and she beat time with her weak hand. After hours of terrible breathing, she said, "I do not know what is to be next." l suggested, "Glory." She suggested, "More Strength to Suffer," perhaps, and it was so. But amid it all, she said, "Lovely! Delightful!" and "That for ever and ever." "I shall soon be where there is no pain; without any disturbances." After she had repeated, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;" I said, "and you are learning it." "I know it," she said, emphatically.
William Luff "The Railway Signal" 1908
