To the eye of a stranger, our friend's cheerful countenance and erect form, during the last few years of his life, indicated a robust state of health, giving the promise of a green old age. Such, however, was not the case. His employment as Foreman of the Humber Dock Gates, was very arduous, exposing him to all kinds of weather, day and night, according to the tides, and he found it telling seriously upon his health. His frequent plunges into the water, in storm and in calm, at midnight as well as at midday, in times of chilling frost as well as in times of warmth, sometimes top-coated and booted, and at other times undressed, also helped to sap his naturally strong frame. [Sidenote: HIS LAST AFFLICTION.] In a private note he remarked, 'It is with difficulty I can talk, at times, and my breathing is so bad, that I am now unable to address the Band of Hope children. The other night, and after I had been in bed about three hours, I was seized with an attack of shortness of breath which lasted four hours, and I thought I should have died in the struggle. But it pleased the Lord to restore me, and since then I have felt a little better. I now suffer greatly from excitement, and need to be kept still and quiet, but my present situation does not allow me much quiet. In fact, I am afraid, at times, that I shall be forced to leave it, for I think, and so does Dr. Gibson, that the watching, night after night, let the weather be as it may, is too much for me. But I leave myself in the hands of God, knowing that he will never leave me nor forsake me.' Dr. Gibson, his medical attendant, wrote the writer thus:-- Hull, _26th Sept., 1867_. Dear Sir,--I received your letter this morning, respecting John Ellerthorpe, a man well known for many years past, and greatly esteemed by the people of Hull, on account of his great daring, and humane and gallant conduct in saving such a large number of human lives from drowning. As his medical attendant, I regret to say, that his frequent plunges into the water, at all seasons of the year, and long exposure in wet clothes, have seriously injured his health and constitution. After the 'Hero's' death the same gentleman wrote:--'Mr. Ellerthorpe had generously attempted to save the lives of others at the expense of abridging his own life.'