Meritorious Service Medal (Hansard, 13 February 1963)

§ 11. Commander Pursey
asked the Secretary of State for War if he will state the amount of the present annuity and the annual allocation of money for the Meritorious Service Medal; if he will give the number of holders of this Medal; and what allocation would be required to pay the annuity to all holders of the Medal when pensioned.

§ Mr. Ramsden
Ten pounds, £7,500, 5,700 and £110,000.

§ Commander Pursey
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that when Queen Victoria instituted this Medal in 1845 the annuity was £20? Why is meritorious service today valued at only half what it was in the Crimean War? With the depreciation in the currency, should not the annuity have been trebled? Why, when we have estimates of hundreds 1285 of millions of pounds for other things, cannot all these old sweats be paid the petty sum of six pennies a day with their pension in the same way as holders of the Distinguished Conduct Medal are paid? Let us have no more nonsense about it.

§ Mr. Ramsden
My information is that the amount has always been the same, namely, £10. I must tell the hon. and gallant Gentleman that this amount has attracted the appropriate pensions increases which have been a feature of ensuing years. In 1950 the hon. and gallant Gentleman's Government made the last change in this matter when they considered it very carefully and decided to maintain the same system in relation to the monetary award but to bring forward the giving of the actual Medal to more people.

§ 12. Commander Pursey
asked the Secretary of State for War if he will state the average age, for the year 1962, of holders of the Meritorious Service Medal who were awarded the annuity; in which year the last Boer War service annuity was awarded; in which years World War and World War II lists are likely to be completed; and when the last of the present holders of the Medal is likely to receive his annuity.

§ Mr. Ramsden
The average age was 77. I estimate that the last of the present holders of the Medal would receive the annuity in up to thirty years' time. I regret that the records do not readily show in what year holders of the Medal who served in particular wars have received or are likely to receive the annuity.

§ Commander Pursey
Is it not the position that of these old sweats who hold the Meritorious Service Medal, more die before receiving the annuity than afterwards? What is the object of an annuity for a Meritorious Service Medal if the majority of those who win it will never receive the annuity? Why, after twenty-two years' service, or more, should an old sweat have to wait for another forty years and be rising 80 years of age before dead men's boots bring him an annuity which he won while serving in the Army? Now laugh that one off, and try to introduce some common sense in relation to the award of this annuity, 1286 the reconsideration of which is long overdue in the Tory affluent society.

§ Mr. Ramsden
It is quite possible to make a joke of it, but I can assure the hon. and gallant Gentleman that I take it very seriously. When this was instituted over 100 years ago, the monetary award was obviously of much more significance than it would be in present-day conditions. We have other and more modem ways of awarding pensions and showing recognition for service. The decoration itself is now really of more importance than the award. My predecessor in the Labour Government recognised this fact when he changed the system of the award and the decoration.