LIEUTENANT COLONEL SPEEDY. (Hansard, 5 May 1890)

§ MR. MACNEILL

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to the case of Lieutenant Colonel Speedy, who, having held the post of Adjutant of the Royal Hibernian Military School for a period of 26 years, during 12 of which years with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, was called on to resign in October, 1880, on the ground of age; whether he is aware that Colonel Speedy's repeated applications, under the provisions of the Royal Warrant of 1878, Article 23, par. f., authorising his retirement for the rank of Colonel in the Army, and the pension attaching thereto, have been refused, on the ground that his post was not a military one within the meaning of the said Warrant: and whether, having regard to the fact that the view of the War Office Authorities on this question is opposed to the opinion of Lord Chief Baron Palles and the Charters of the Royal Hibernian Military School, which expressly define the military character of the post of Adjutants, and having regard also to the fact that Colonel Speedy had served in Her Majesty's Army for a period of 42 years, receiving promotion for gallantry on the field, and that the result of the refusal of his claim is his retirement as Major with £300 per annum pension instead of his retirement as Colonel with £420 per annum pension, ho will permit the case of Colonel Speedy to be re-opened, and the opinion of the War Office to be submitted to the test of legal examination, as was done in the similar case of Colonel Addy?