HL Deb 12 March 1925 vol 60 cc524-5

The Committee heard with the deepest regret of the death on the 30th December, 1924, of Mr. J. B. Hotham, who was transferred to the Northern Ireland Parliament from the staff of the Parliament Office on the 16t'h of September, 1921.

Mr. Hotham was one of the most efficient clerks that has ever served in this House, and during the war great responsibility fell on him for nearly every department in the office. Combined with efficiency was a disposition which endeared him to every person with whom he came in contact.

At the time of Mr. Hotham's transfer to the Northern Ireland Parliament, the Committee agreed (in February, 1922), that a portion of his pensionable rights would be due from the House of Lords. After consultation with the Ministry of Finance of Northern Ireland the amount due from the two Governments to Mr. Hotham's legal representative has been agreed upon as a gratuity of £1,664 14s. 9(d). This sum is calculated in accordance with the Superannuation Acts of 1909 and 1914, and is at the rate of one year's salary, plus 75 per cent. of the current bonus. As Mr. Hotham's total service amounted to twenty-six years, twenty-two years and ten months of which was in the House of Lords, the Committee sanctioned the payment by the House of Lords of £1,472 13s.0d., being 23/26ths of the total gratuity.