HC Deb 18 November 1919 vol 121 cc364-5
58. Mr. HAYDN JONES

asked the Lord Privy Seal whether his attention has been called to the case of Jean Roberts, who joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps at Kinmel Park Camp on the 28th November, 1917, and who died of spotted fever in Bangor Military Hospital in January, 1918, contracted during her period of service; whether he is aware that she was the main support of a widowed mother and five children, one of whom is a cripple, and that no compensation is recoverable under the Workmen's Compensation Acts nor under the Regulations governing the terms of her enlistment in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps; and, as the mother has been compelled to seek Poor Law relief, whether His Majesty's Government, in the exceptional circumstances indicated, will afford adequate financial assistance and so remove from the mother the stigma of receiving parochial relief?

Mr. FORSTER

I have been asked to reply. The circumstances of this case have been brought before the War Office. I regret that I have no power to extend to dependants of members of the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps who die of disease in this country more generous treatment than that accorded to the dependants of other women employed on Government work during the War, but I am considering whether it is possible to grant exceptional treatment in this case.