WAR PENSIONS. First Period—Prior to 1592-93. The war pension—which is here taken as covering any grant made in recognition of disablement sustained in the fighting f orces first appears as a purely voluntary grant at the goodwill of the particular war captain or overlord who led a company, or com manded a ship. The commonest form of grant is thus naturally a gratuity on discharge, though the territorial system of the feudal levy obviously provided the means of continued support or assist ance in cash or kind where necessary. The monastic houses and charitable endowments of the Church helped substantially in the same direction. The dissolution of these establishments and the dispersal of their endowments, together with the final break up of the feudal system in the 16th century, left the disabled soldier entirely dependent on his former commander. Captains of forces in the Low Countries in Elizabeth's day complained that they were expected to make provision for the sick and wounded "whose charge has laid heavily on them" and the queen "is troubled whensoever she takes the air by these miserable creatures." Ac cordingly in the last ten years of her reign a series of acts was passed making definite provision by statute for the first time for disabled soldiers and seamen.
The first of these acts recognised the claim of the soldier or seaman maimed "in the service of Her Majesty and of the State" and provided also for those who, though not maimed had served for 20 years or were incapacitated. Building on past precedent, as well as on the newly amended system of rating for the relief of the poor, the act laid on the locality of the man's enlistment the obligation of providing the pension. The amount of a pension was not to exceed LI() a year for a private soldier, nor £15 for an officer, the award to be made by the justices in Quarter Sessions, and paid out of the pro ceeds of rates levied at amounts ranging from a minimum of 2d a week to a maximum of iod. a week on every householder. A special county official, the "treasurer for maimed soldiers," was made the recipient of the rates collected and the paymaster of pensions. Concurrently with the payment of pensions on these lines, a substantial number of men were provided for in "alms rooms" or almshouses, local charities attached to cathedrals or the relics of charitable foundations left on the dissolution of the monastic houses. In London the disused palaces of Ely House and the Savoy were made to house a substantial number of dis abled and discharged men.
This system can never have been altogether satisfactory. Local obligations were unequally fulfilled, payments were irregular and no effective central control existed to make the system work. But, except for a brief interval during the Protectorate when pen sions were made payable from national funds, largely from the sequestrated property of Royalists, the system lasted until some years after the Restoration. The recognition of a standing army, for which parliament annually voted regular supplies, then com pelled equal recognition of the claims of the disabled as a mat ter for central administration. Whether on the analogy of Louis XIV.'s Hotel des Invalides, or on the precedent of the local hos pitals or hostels which, as we have seen, had been used for the housing of disabled soldiers and seamen in all parts of the coun try, national provision for the disabled took the form of large central "hospitals" (i.e., in the modern sense, hostels). The re sult was the foundation of Chelsea and Kilmainham for ex soldiers and Greenwich hospital for ex-seamen.
In 1681 Charles II. announced his intention to erect a hospital for disabled soldiers and endow it with revenue. Contributions were invited from the public, the king himself heading the list with a substantial grant, but re course had soon to be had to other means. Funds were found by deduction from the pay of the troops—poundage as it came to be known—both for the cost of construction and maintenance of the hospital and for some part of the cost of pensions, but at a very early date parliament had to supplement these funds, and finally, though not till 1831, when all deductions were finally abolished, took over the entire cost. The control of the hospital and the administration of pensions to the disabled ex-soldier was entrusted to commissioners, of whom the Paymaster General of the Forces is always one, appointed by the Crown under letters patent. The duty of awarding the pensions both for long service and disablement to all non-commissioned ranks was, and con tinues to be, entrusted to the commission by royal warrants over the king's signature, awards being made at their discretion sub ject to the terms and conditions laid down in the warrants. The award of pensions to officers, and later to widows and dependants was retained by the War Office, acting also under warrant.