"SCENE IN HOUSE"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23719, 27 July 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SCENE IN HOUSE"

was a warning cry. M.P.'s looked up to see an Army officer drop IBffc. from the Strangers' Gallery tg the floor of the House of Commons.

"I am asking you to protect the heads of British soldiers against shrapnel!" he shouted. Very' improper and irregular, no doubt—but it led to the adoption of the steel helmet in the British Army during the last war, and so saved thousands of lives. This is one . of, the many dramatic incidents which occurred during Mr. Walter' H. Erskine's forty years' service as an officer of the House of Comjnons. ' Thought It Was a Ghost Mr. Erskine, who retired the other day, was Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms. Before he had served as Assistant Sergeant. His father, Sir David Erskine, was Deputy Sergeant and Sergeant, and Mr. Erskine lived in the Palace ,of Westminster for 65 years, from the time he was five, states Answers, London. The Suffragettes gave him a lot of trouble between 1906 and 1914. They were not content with interrupting speeches, showering leaflets on members or even chaining themselves to the grille of the Ladies' Gallery. In November, 1910, Miss Emily Davison—who •was killed during the Derby of 1913,

Official Recalls Suffragette Days

when she flung herself in front of a racehorse —sent a hammer through the window between the House and the division l9bby. On another occasion, Miss Davison hid in the ventilating shaft of the House. She was found by a policeman on night duty. The man got the shock of his life. At first he thought he had seen a ghost. When M.P.'s were "named" or suspended for defying the Chair, it was Mr. Erskine's job, as Assistant Sergeant/ to see that they left ..the premises. Some of the "rebels" —fifty in all—who came under his charge were a bit of a handful.

Parliamentary manners are changing, however. Mr. Erskine thinks that Members of Parliament to-day are more orderly than their predecessors. There has been nothing in the last 25 years like the scene during a Home Pule debate, in which a book was hurled at Churchill.