Beaufort West women were among  “Loyal Colonial Ladies” who contributed towards a gift for the Duchess of Cornwall and York when she visited South Africa in 1901. In a letter thanking them for their generosity, Helena Kingsley, Honorary Secretary of the Ladies’Executive Committee in Cape Town, wrote: “Her Royal Highness received an ostrich feather fan mounted in gold and with diamonds, a cabinet of Colonial woods and a portfolio of Cape wild flowers. The gifts greatly delighted her and she graciously used the fan  in Cape Town.  A balance of £354 4s 5d remains and it will be used to endow a woman’s bed at Somerset Hospital, in Cape Town. The Duchess has consented to name the bed.”