§ MR. FRANCIS EVANS (Southampton)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to the case of Benjamin Young, who joined the Naval Reserve in November, 1874, having, in December, 1889, whilst on board H.M.S. "Trincomalee," sustained single rupture, the injury from which he is now suffering, and who was granted a pension of £9 2s. per annum, which was discontinued after the second year, the Admiralty giving him a gratuity of £5 on account of the injury sustained; whether he is aware that Young applied 1560 for a pension such as would be given to a man who had served fifteen years in the Royal Navy under the Queen's Regulations, Article 2,003, vii., and Article 2,004 (c)—namely, 6d. a day for life—and that the Admiralty declined by letter, dated the 19th of April, 1892, to grant the deferred pension of Royal Naval Reserve, for which Benjamin Young did not apply; and whether, having regard to the fact that Young applied only for the pension of 6d. a day under the Queen's Regulations, Article 2,003, vii., and Article 2,004 (c), he will direct that an inquiry be made into the claim, with a view to Young receiving the pension to which he is entitled?
SIR JOHN GORST(who replied): Benjamin Young sustained a single rupture in December, 1889, while loading sand in a boat during the period of his drill on board the "Trincomalee." For this injury he was awarded a pension of £9 2s. a year for two years, and at the end of that time a gratuity of £5. This is the utmost assistance that the Admiralty are justified in granting under the regulations, as although the rupture incapacitated him for further service in the Royal Naval Reserve, yet it did not render him incapable of contributing to his own support. The conditions of service of men in the Royal Navy are very different from those of merchant seamen enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve, who in the ordinary course are only called upon to undergo an annual drill of a few weeks' duration. It is not, therefore, considered that fifteen years' service in the Naval Reserve entitles a man to the same pension as fifteen years' service in the Navy.