§ COLONEL HUGHES-HALLETT (Rochester)asked the Secretary of State for War, Why Brigade-Surgeon William Graves, while serving on the Medical Staff in India, was passed over eleven times for promotion from rank of surgeon major, he having been on sick leave but on full pay at the time those promotions were made, the said sick leave having been granted to him in consequence of illness contracted while on duty; whether in every other respect but temporary physical unfitness he was qualified for promotion; and, whether, in the circumstances of the case, this officer's promotion may be ante-dated so as to place him in his original position in the Army List?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)It being a rule of the Medical Department that an officer cannot be promoted to the rank of brigade-surgeon unless he be fit physically for general service, I am afraid that this promotion cannot be ante-dated.