The Lord Mayor of London convened a meeting in his offices to embark on a fund-raising effort to mitigate a massive drought and famine in north-west India that had already killed hundreds of thousands. The campaign spread across the country, raised £20,000 in a week and at its ending in July 1861, had collected £107,585. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Chronicle, The Annual Register or a View of the History and Politics of the Year 1861 (London: F. & J. Rivington, 1862), p. 45-46.