HC Deb 01 June 1938 vol 336 cc2022-4
31. Mr. Parker

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the amount of money collected from the public and the Navy, and the total, in the two years since the public appeal was launched for £23,000 to build one of the missing hostels at the Royal Hospital School as a memorial to Admiral Jellicoe; and, seeing that when this money is received another £23,000 will still be required for the other missing hostel, will he, in view of the large capital and income of Greenwich Hospital and the value of the Reade estate, state why the school should not be completed from these funds and a more necessary object selected for a Jellicoe memorial, or the money collected in the name of charity returned to the public and the Navy?

The Civil Lord of the Admiralty (Colonel Llewellin)

The fund for a memorial to the late Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe is not being raised by the Admiralty, but by the British Legion. The decision on the latter part of the question does not rest with the Admiralty, but I do not know of a more appropriate memorial to the late Lord Jellicoe than a boys' house at the Royal Hospital School, and I am grateful to the British Legion for their action in this matter.

32. Mr. Parker

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of boys who could be accommodated at the old orphanage for the sons of naval and mercantile marine men at Greenwich; the number intended to be accommodated at the new school, Holbrook; the numbers there each year since 1933; the cost to date of building and equipping the new Royal Hospital School at Holbrook; the amount of money required to build the two missing hostels; and the reasons for cutting two hostels out of the original plans, whereby for five years over 200 boys annually have not been accommodated who could have been had the buildings been completed, seeing that the total capital of Greenwich Hospital, of which the school is a part, is about £6,000,000, with considerable sums on loan, and that the estate of the late Mr. Reade, left in trust in 1929 for the benefit of the hospital, was about £425,000, and in two years' time will be about £750,000?

Colonel Llewellin

Formerly upwards of 1,000 boys were housed in the old Royal Hospital School at Greenwich; by modern standards it could accommodate not more than about 600. The complement of the new school at Holbrook is now 860 boys, and that number has been reached every year since it opened in 1933. The total capital cost of the new school to date is approximately £1,083,000. Two additional boys' houses would cost about £50,000 to build and equip. Two houses were deleted from the original scheme with a view to keep- ing the capital cost of the new school within figures which the hospital could afford having regard to its many liabilities in providing other benefits for naval personnel and their dependants, on which its income is now fully spent. The hospital will not benefit from the bequest of the late Mr. Reade until 1940 or later.