BANK FOR THE WIDOW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 281, 19 April 1913, Page 8

BANK FOR THE WIDOW.

LADY SCOTT'S TITLE. London, February 25. It was officially announced yesterday that the King had been pleased to •grant to Mrs. R. F. Scott, the name, rank, style, and precedence she would have had if her husband had been nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath, as he would have been had he survived. The honour thus done to Captain Scott's memory received the warm approval of the newspapers, some of which had given support to the suggestion that the explorer's widow should receive a title. As a knight's widow, Mrs, Scottt will henceforth be known ,&s Ladv Scott, !

Although the King rarely exercises his perogative to bestow a title upon a wo-, man, 'Mrs. Scott is not the first thus honoured. The most celebrated instance of a woman receiving the title was in 1801, when Sir Ralph Abcrcrombie died from wounds after the battle of Alexandria. A few months later his widow was created a Baroness of the United Kingdom in >her. own right. The widows of some officers killed in the Crimean war and the widows -of one or two offi> cers who lost their lives in the Boer war received knights' widows' ranks. There are two peeresses in their own right who received their titles on the death of their husbands in consideration of the latter's eminent public service—Viscountess Hambleden, widow of the Right Hon. W. H. ■Staith,. leader of the House of Commons, and Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe, widow of Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime Minister of Canada: Both these titles were conferred in 1891. Numerous instances are also found of the bestowal of titles on the wives of eminent men who remained commoners. The chief cases are those of the wife of the elder Pitt, Baroness Chatham, and of Mrs. Disraeli, who was created Viscountess Disraeli eight years before her husband became Earl of Beaconsfield. Relatives of dead soldiers have on many occasions received Victoria Crosses which would have been awarded to the heroes had they survived. The best known example is that of Lord Roberts, who received the cross won by his son, Lieutenant Roberts, who was killed in the battle of Colenso.