British Officer Pensions: 1811
Regulation for granting Pensions to Officers
of his [British] Majesty's Land Forces, losing an Eye or a Limb
on service.
If an officer shall be wounded in action, and it shall appear upon
an inspection made of him by the army medical board, at any period
not sooner than a year and a day after the time when he was wounded,
that he has in consequence of his wound lost a limb or an eye, or
has totally lost the use of a limb, or that his wound has been equally
prejudicial to his habit of body with the loss of a limb; such officer
shall be entitled to a pension, commencing from the expiration of
a year and a day after the time when he was wounded, and depending
as to its amount upon the rank he held at that period, according
to the scale annexed. This pension, being granted as a compensation
for the injury sustained, is to be held together with any other pay
and allowances to which such officer may be otherwise entitled, without
any deduction on account thereof.
Officers who shall have lost more than
one limb or eye, shall be entitled to the pension for each eye or
limb so lost.
And as the pension is not to commence till the expiration of a year
and a day from the date of the wound, it is to be independent of
the allowance of a yea's pay, or the expences attending
the cure of wounds, granted under the existing regulations.
Applications for this pension are to be made in the same manner
in which claims for the year's pay are now made to the Secretary
at War (Viz., By the agent of the regiment to which the wounded
officer belongs.); and must always be accompanied by the certificate
of the army medical board, if the officer applying is at home; and
by that of the principal medical officer on the station where he
is, if the officer is abroad.
In the latter case, however, the officer must, as soon as he returns
home, be inspected by the army medical board (The office is at No.
5, Berkeley-street, Berkeley square.), and transmit their certificate
to the secretary at war.
All officers who may have sustained such an injury as would entitle
them to this pension, by any wounds received since the commencement
of hostilities in the year 1793, will, upon the production of the
proper certificate from the army medical board, be allowed a pension
proportioned, according to the scale, to the rank they held at the
time when wounded, and commencing from the 25th December,
1811.
This allowance will be granted in general according to regimental
rank, but in cases in which, in consequence of their brevet rank,
officers shall have been employed at the time when they were wounded,
in discharge of duties superior to those attached to their regimental
commissions, it will be given by the brevet rank. Given at the War-office, this 20th day of June, 1812. By
command of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and
on behalf of His Majesty, (Signed) PALMERSTON.
Scale referred to in the preceding Regulation. Rates
of Pensions.
RANKS.—Field Marshal, General, or Lieutenant-general commanding
in chief at the time.—To
Be specially considered.
Lieutenant-general.............................................................................................. £400
Major-general, or Brigadier-general commanding
a brigade.............................. £350
Colonel; Lieutenant-colonel; *Adjutant-general; *Quarter-master-general;
*Deputy-adjutant-general, If chief of the department; *Deputy Quarter-master-general,
if ditto; Inspector of hospitals ......... £300
Major commanding .............................................................................................. £250
Major; *Deputy Adjutant-general; *Deputy Quarter-master-general;
Deputy Inspector of hospitals .. £200
Captain; *Assistant Adjutant general; *Assistant Quarter-master-general;
*Secretary to the commander of the forces; *Aide-de-camp; *Major
of Brigade; Surgeon Regimental; Paymaster; *Judge Advocate; Physician;
Staff Surgeon; Chaplain........................ £100
Lieutenant; Adjutant.................................................................................................. £70
Cornet; Ensign; Second Lieutenant; Regimental Quarter-master; Assistant
Surgeon; Apothecary; Hospital Mate; Veterinary Surgeon; Purveyor;
Deputy Purveyor....... £50
The Officers marked thus (*) to have the Allowance according to
their Army Rank, if they prefer it.
Source: The Royal Military Chronicle; or British Officer's Monthly
Register and
Mentor. August 1812.
London.
Data provided by Tom Holmberg.
Placed on the Napoleon Series: March 2007
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