HC Deb 20 March 1882 vol 267 c1283
MR. REDMOND

asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether his attention has been called to an application for pension from Michael Flynn, late of C battery, F brigade, R.H.A., and previously of the East India Company's service; whether it is a fact that this man served in the Indian mutiny with bravery, and on one occasion captured a Sepoy spy, for which he received no reward whatever; whether it is a fact that in 1863, during a field day, he received a crush from a horse which invalided him and eventually forced him to leave the service; whether he is now entirely without pension; and, whether he will reconsider the case, with a view to making some provision for him?

MR. CHILDERS

Sir, I had heard nothing of this case, which is some 17 years old, until I read the hon. Member's Question; but the facts appear to be that Michael Flynn, after serving the East India Company for two years, enlisted in the Royal Artillery in 1859, and was discharged in 1865. His character was recorded as "bad," and he was discharged for unfitness, the result of a disease which I need not name. His short service, of course, gave him no claim to permanent pension; and I may say that neither at the War Office nor the India Office is anything known of his acts of bravery, or of his supposed accident in 1863.