7.—ESTIMATES. (Hansard, 31 July 1928)

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE
My Lords, I beg to move that the Third Report by the Select Committee be now considered and adopted.

§ LORD JESSEL
My Lords, I have been asked by a noble Lord who had the misfortune to lose a son in the War whether anything can be done as regards rectifying an omission on the Memorial in Westminster Hall. Your Lordships will no doubt recollect that that Memorial is to the memory of members of this House and members of the House of Commons and the staffs of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and also to the sons of members of the House of Commons. The omission which the noble Lord who asked me to speak on the matter wishes to have rectified is that there is no notice taken of the fact that sons of members of your Lordships' house were lost in the War. To any one who reads the inscription on that Memorial it is matter of wonder that there is no mention at all of the sons of members of this House. I do not know quite who is the proper authority to appeal to in the matter, but this Report deals with the question of the Memorial in the Royal Gallery and I would like to ask if anything has been done in the matter and if there is any hope of this omission being rectified.

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE
My Lords, my noble friend says quite rightly that there is a passage in the Report referring to the proceedings of your Lordships' Memorial Committee, but that Committee is, of course, in no way, and never has been, concerned with the Memorial in Westminster Hall. I have, therefore, no official information and no way of obtaining official information that I think would help my noble friend very much. I have, however, certain unofficial information which I am glad to place at his disposal. There are, it is common 1537 knowledge, grave omissions in some of the inscriptions on the Memorial in Westminster Hall, for which, of course, none of your Lordships were in any way responsible. An approach was made to those who were responsible and a suggested form of words was made in December, 1927. My noble friend the secretary of your Lordships' Memorial Committee, was informed on April 26, 1928, that an inscription would be put up. That is really all I can tell my noble friend.

§ LORD JESSEL
My Lords, I wish to thank the Lord Chairman for the information that he has given, and I hope that steps will be taken by those responsible to see that some form of words such as is suggested in the correspondence shall be put up.