§ Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if there is any reason why a pension under the Old Age Pension Act should not be granted to Edward McConnell, of Tandragee, county Armagh, who is almost eighty years of age and who served in the Royal Artillery through the Crimean War, was wounded at Inkerman, and was also present at the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, and Sebastopol; was the only ground on which the old age pension was refused the fact that McConnell resided for some years in Canada after his discharge from the Army; and will he instruct the local committee that this is a case in which a pension should be granted?
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)Edward McConnell became an Army pensioner about 1885, and in 1890 went out to Canada, where his wife and family were already residing. He settled in that country and did not return until 1905 to the United Kingdom, so that he had lived for only about six years out of the last twenty in the United Kingdom. The Local Government Board had therefore no option but to uphold the decision of the Pension Sub-Committee disallowing his claim on the ground that he did not fulfil the statutory condition as to residence within the United Kingdom.