§ Mr. STRANGERasked the Minister of Pensions whether his attention has been called to the case of W. E. Rhodes, of 2 and 3, Station Approach, Newbury, Berks, who, while serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps, although medically unfit for overseas duty in 1918, volunteered to take a column overseas, and while so doing was accidentally knocked down and had his left leg crushed by a three-ton lorry, resulting in two amputations and 12 months' treatment in hospital; whether he is aware that, as the loss of the limb did not occur in action, he has only been awarded a pension of £75 per annum without any wound gratuity; and whether, in this case and in similar cases, wound gratuity will be awarded for the loss of a limb in addition to a pension?
§ Major ATTLEEI have been asked to reply. Lieutenant Rhodes, whose injury occurred on Salisbury Plain and not overseas, has been dealt with under Article 648 of the Pay Warrant of 1914 and Army Order 3 of 1916, under which the rate of pension admissible under the above-quoted Article was increased in order to give subalterns the same rate as captains. Article 648 is reproduced below, and it will be seen that Lieutenant Rhodes is in receipt of the maximum rate admissible for an officer of his rank, and further, that the rate awarded has regard to the disablement caused by the injury. Under the Regulations no gratuity is admissible in addition to the pension, and in the circumstances I much regret that nothing further can be done.