§ 20. Mr. RUPERT GWYNNEasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been "ailed to the case of Mr. Septimus Charles Somerville, who has lately been dismissed from the service of the East Sussex County Asylum at Hellingley, because he is suffering from consumption; whether during the nine years he has been employed there he has paid into the superannuation fund for a pension; whether the visiting committee applied to the Home Office for permission to add time to his service, for the purpose of giving him a pension under the Superannuation Act; whether permission has been refused, and, if such is the case, if he will reconsider that decision on the grounds that at the time Somerville entered the service of the asylum committee he was examined and found fit both for asylum work and for the Army Reserve, and therefore his illness has risen during his present employment, and in view of the fact that Somerville has a wife and four children dependent on him?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)I have made inquiries in this case, and am informed that Mr. Somerville entered the asylum service on 2nd April, 1905, and became incapacitated for work on account of pulmonary tuberculosis on 20th October, 1913. He received sick pay for six months, at the end of which time the visiting committee felt reluctantly compelled to dispense with his services, and ordered his superannuation contributions to be returned to him, in accordance with Section of the Asylum Officers' Superannuation Act, 1909. The visiting committee made no application to me for permission to add time to his service in order that he might receive a pension, and I am advised that there is no power under the Act to make such an addition in the case of an officer who has not qualified for pension by ten years' service.