THE SOLDIERS FAMILIES AT COLCHESTER—QUESTION. (Hansard, 20 February 1857)

§ SIR JOHN TYRELL

said, he wished to repeat the question which he had recently put to the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for War, with respect to the alarming state of destitution among the wives and children of the soldiers at Colchester. On that occasion the hon. Gentleman said he had no information upon the subject, but the House, he trusted, would bear with him while he read a letter from Dr. Duncan, the physician to the Colchester Hospital, and the testimony of a number of gentlemen who had formed themselves into a Committee to relieve these poor creatures. The letter was as follows:— 946 You may rest assured that no moderate language can convey an idea of the utter want and destitution of some 130 families of soldiers in Colchester. I do not reckon the children. Were it not for the most extensive private benevolence many of these unfortunates must have starved, and would continue to do so. From my medical experience in London, I am qualified to judge in points of want and misery; but I never saw such wretchedness as is suffered by the women kind of our 'brave defenders.' I wish you to understand, that it is not only those women whose marriages were not sanctioned by the regimental authorities that suffer. I know an instance of a woman with seven children (on the strength of the regiment) who one day had for dinner one pennyworth of potatoes and a halfpennyworth of greens. She would have starved over and over again had it not been for private charity. She has an excellent character. The cause of her poverty is that which influences all those that are destitute—namely, stoppages on account of railway and other expenses. Women are living in piggeries, in cupboards, and wash-houses, and in rooms of the most wretched description. We have endeavoured to amend this state of things, but the number of poor is too great for us to grapple with. The great causes of all this distress are stoppages of the soldiers' pay, and consequently of the pence that would otherwise go to the wife (thirty young married women, without children, are absolutely living upon 1d. a day!)—married men messing in camp—the inaptitude of the Irish to such labour as will remunerate in such a town as Colchester—dearness of fuel and lodging—cause of all, moving the depot, and charging the married men with the expense of moving their wives, and throwing them into a town where there is a superabundance of labour. Remedy—Pay back the stoppages, furnish the wretched people with old stores (they sleep for the most part on straw), and send down some huts to place them in. The Rev. James Round, the Rev. Mr. Lock, the Rev. Mr. Owen, the Rev. Mr. Curtis, the Rev. Mr. Pollexfen, and myself, constitute a committee to try and do something for the people, and Mr. Hulcatt, the chaplain of the forces, is worked to death in supplying the wants of the numerous applicants. I brought the matter before the magistrates fourteen days ago, and a report of my sayings was in the local papers. Mr. Lock, the rector of St. Botolph's, Colchester, will send you a letter, addressed to you at the House of Commons, which will certainly astonish those who believe they are making the soldier a respectable, moral, and religious member of society. We want money for the next fortnight for absolute food and clothing. He would only detain the House a moment longer, because he trusted that the hon. Gentleman was now considerably enlightened as to the frightful destitution which prevailed, and he (Sir J. Tyrell) hoped that he would be prepared to state what the Government intended to do in the matter. He would also appeal to those hon. Members who were struggling for the leadership of the House to consider whether a portion of the money which would 947 be asked for by the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not be very well applied to the relief of such misery.