THE LATE SIR HENRY WILSON. (Hansard, 22 June 1922)

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
My Lords, I desire to ask your Lordships' leave to interpose a Motion which I will read to the House immediately, and which, I think it will be agreed, is a Motion which ought to be passed, in view of the very tragic circumstance which has taken place this afternoon. I understand that the Motion will be acceptable in every quarter of the House. It is as follows:
"That this House desires to place upon record its detestation of the horrible 1093 crime which has been committed this afternoon, namely, the murder of Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, Member of Parliament, by which the country has been deprived of a most distinguished soldier and public servant, and to express its profound sympathy with Lady Wilson in her sorrow."
Sir Henry Wilson was known to us all. He was a personal friend of most of us. He was a Member of the other House of Parliament, and his great services in the war are fresh in the memory of us all.
His death is accompanied with every circumstance of horror. Here, in the middle of our own Metropolis, he has been murdered. This crime cannot but bring home to us the circumstances in which we live, and in which another part of the United Kingdom has been plunged for so many months. I think we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the other House of Parliament, to say what we feel in a formal manner, and to show the country how deeply we detest the horrible crime which has been committed. I beg to move.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, before I make the very brief observations which I will make in support of the Motion moved by the noble Marquess, I think it might not be unacceptable to the House if I added some later information on this melancholy subject. This message was received at Scotland Yard at twenty-five minutes past three— At about 2.20 p.m. James O'Brien, aged twenty-four, no occupation, no address, and James Connolly, aged twenty-four, no occupation or address, were seen running from No. 30, Eaton Place and were chased by Police Constable March, who was shot and seriously wounded in tin stomach. Police Constable Sayer who took up the chase was shot in the leg, and both these officers are now in St. George's Hospital. A private individual is also detained in St. George's Hospital— who apparently had taken some part in the pursuit— suffering from sonic injuries the natur3 of which is unknown. Police Constable Bush with others 1094 joined in the chase and succeeded in knocking O'Brien down with his fist, and a revolver fell from O'Brien's hands. It contained four live and two spent cartridges. The other man, who was overpowered by tie constables, also had a revolver in which there were two spent cartridges, and one live cartridge in his hand or pocket. They are both Webley Service revolvers. Connolly had a holster. Sir Henry Wilson had been shot three times, once through the body, once through the leg, and once through the arm. It is believed that the shooting took place on the threshold of his house IV hen he was about to leave the house. There is some suggestion that there was a third man, but there is nothing at Scotland Yard to corroborate this at the moment. The men put up a very violent resistance and they bear marked traces of violence. They declined to give any account of themselves. They have since said that they ale soldiers, but decline to say in what regiment. The police say later: We have now found a copy of the official organ of the Irish Republican Army on Connolly, and also correspondence, which proves without doubt that he is a member of the Irish Republican Army. I am glad that the noble Marquess has repaired what might have appeared to be an omission on the part of the House in reference to this subject earlier in the day. The information only reached me a few moments before I stood by the Woolsack to make the announcement, and I only knew that I was to answer a Question upon the subject a minute before I actually rose to reply to the noble and learned Lord. It is in every way right that we should place on record in the most formal manner our sense, of the heinous character of this vile murder, and our sense, too, of the loss which this country has sustained by the death of Sir Henry Wilson.
Forty years have passed since he transferred from his original battalion into the Rifle Brigade—forty years crowded with adventure, with active service, and with brilliant contributions to the military operations of this country. Every one knows that a part which had always been distinguished became almost decisive in the last few years of the war, but only those who were at that time members of one or other of the Governments which were responsible for the fortunes of the war know the full extent of the debt which this country owes to the ingenious resource, the imaginative capacity and the soldierly science of the late Sir Henry Wilson. I sincerely hope that the fact that the gallant Field-Marshal differed, and even differed profoundly, from some of the views and recommendations for which this Government have made themselves responsible, 1095 will not be held a sufficient cause for repelling them or me from the expression, however inadequate, in this House of the heartfelt grief which we feel at his loss and the sympathy which every one of us must feel for the bereaved lady who mourns that loss to-day.

THE MARQUESS OF CREWE
My Lords, I have very few words to add to those which have fallen from the noble Marquess behind me and from the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack. I cannot recall a precedent for the action which has been taken by the noble Marquess behind me in making such a Motion as this, but nobody in the House is likely to make that a cause of complaint, because the circumstances under which the Motion is made are themselves also altogether without precedent. I feel certain that the House will agree with the noble and learned Viscount on the Woolsack in thanking the noble Marquess for the course which he has taken. I need add little, indeed scarcely anything, to what has been said about the late Field-Marshal. He was a man of the greatest brilliancy both in his military capacity and generally; and, as the noble and learned Viscount has stated, there are many of us here with whom in political matters he remained in the profoundest disagreement, but that certainly did not prevent us from appreciating those qualities of his which brought him such pre-eminent distinction in the war and enabled him to render such undoubted service to the country. I desire on behalf of those with whom I act to join in the expression of sympathy with his bereaved wife and with all his relatives.

THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH
My Lords, it is always a very solemn thing to be with a man and then to hear in a few hours that he has been cut off. Such, however, is my sad fate to-clay. Sir Henry Wilson and I were at Liverpool Street station to-day not four hours ago, each taking his own part in the unveiling of the beautiful monument there erected to the soldiers of the Great Eastern Railway who fell in the war. He stood there every inch a man and every inch a soldier, and he had in front of him many, many men and women whose hearts were touched to tears as he spoke to them. Somehow, it now seems appropriate that his last words should have been words of comfort to those who were mourning their lost ones as we now mourn for him. He spoke very 1096 beautifully and he spoke very briefly. Then he heard the last words about the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and that peace is now his. Then he heard the "Last Post." We are glad to know that that was immediately followed by the "Réveilé," and that, too, he has now heard. His speech consisted almost entirely of two quotations, one from an English poet and one from a Latin poet, Horace.
Somehow, in the last few hours, since I heard of his tragic death and since he and I were speaking together, before we bade each other farewell, of the great soldier Lord Roberts who was a common friend of us both—since that time I have found running in my head not the words of Rudyard Kipling, nor the words of Horace, but I thought of the wonderful description given in Virgil's masterpiece of those who are entitled to enter upon the Elysian Fields. Your Lordships will remember that one class of those happy mortals consists of those, Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo—who have built their own memorial by the services they have rendered. Such was he and such is he. Forgive me for intruding upon you in this way, but I was so near to the tragedy itself that I felt that a few words from this Bench might not be considered wholly inappropriate in supporting the Motion of the noble Marquess.