§ 61. Mr. HAYDN JONESasked the Minister of Pensions whether his attention has been drawn to the decision of the entitlement appeal tribunal that the widow and children of the late Edwin Pritchard, No. 23507, Army Veterinary Corps, are not entitled to a continuance of the pension received up to the date of his death, on the ground that the phthisis from which he suffered and died was not caused or hastened by the effect of his war service; whether he is aware that Pritchard had not been in hospital for seven years; that the appeal tribunal, on his discharge from the Army, unanimously decided that his unfitness was attributable to, or aggravated by, military service; and whether, seeing that another tribunal, after the man's death, when his evidence was no longer available, reversed the decision of the first tribunal, and so deprived the widow and children of their right to a pension, he will reconsider the case?
The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of PENSIONS (Lieut.-Colonel Stanley)Mr. Pritchard was admitted to hospital with phthisis within a fortnight of his enlistment and was discharged from the Army two months later. Pension was awarded to him in consequence of the decision by the Pensions Appeal Tribunal in 1917 that his disability had been aggravated by his war service. The tribunal which heard the widow's appeal did not reverse the decision that the man's appeal should be allowed—which, indeed, it had no power to do—but decided that the aggravation was not so severe that the man's death over eight years after discharge could be regarded as wholly due to the nature or condition of the disability as resulting directly from war service.