When Nelson Turned Both ini Eyes

Northern Advocate, 7 December 1946, Page 4

When Nelson Turned Both ini Eyes

(Special.) LONDON, Dec. 6. The House of Commons had what one commentator called an "air of determined truancy” when it took the afternoon off from more serious duties to debate the second reading of the Government bill to annul tne £SOOO annuity voted to the lamily of Lord Nelson by the Parliament of 1806. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dr Hugh Dalton) dropped his air of urbanity.

He spoke with obvious feeling ot official ingratitude which had ignored the expressed wish of Admiral Nelson, that the country should care for Lady Hamilton, and voted a £SOOO pension to "a shadowy secondary figure, the elder brother of the great sailor," leaving Lady Hamilton to die in penury in a Paris garret and be buried in a squalid, unknown grave. Dr Dalton said the direct descendants of the famous admiral had never benefited from the annuity, which had gone to Nelson's collateral relations. It had already cost the country £700,000.

PROVIDED FOR LADY HAMILTON Mr Wilson Harris (Ind.—Cambridge University) was less moved by the story of Lady Hamilton than was Dr Dalton. He said she received £2OOO in cash under Nelson’s will and an annuity of £SOO, together with a house and grounds at Merton valued at £12,000 to £15,000 a year. Mr Harris suggested that she also received other financial benefits and that Nelson “had clearly turned ,both blind eyes to her shortcomings.” Dr Dalton's eloquence on behalf of Lady Hamilton was chiefly designed to i ensure the passing of the second readi ing of the bill in the face of ConI servative opposition. I Nevertheless, his statement that the j Government would asquire the 100roomed Trafalgar House, in Wiltshire, j home of the Nelson family for the past 140 years, so that the present earl (who is aged 89) and his heirs and successors should have the benefit of the purchase money, caused Commander J. W. Maitland, the Opposition spokesman, to admit with appropriate naval metaphor that the Chancellor had spiked his guns. FOR THE NATION Although the annuity will not be' terminated until the death of the present earl and his brother, the heir (who is aged 86), the present holder of the title proposes to move as soon as possible into a smaller house. When he does so he may present to the nation a number of prized relics of his great ancestor, which are housed at Trafalgar House. # They include a portrait of Nelson, a Romney sketch of Lady Hamilton, the admiral's famous telescope and his pistols, engraved with his name and , the date 1780. his leather chair from the cabin of the Victory and the seal with which he marked Iris despatch after the Battle of Copenhagen. The annuity is not free of tax. Today it is worth £2400.