Winning His War Pension

1916 was a bad year for the Carney family. The year had begun with the tragic news that James had been killed in Gallipoli. Frank Carney had been hospitalised in the previous December, and had been invalided out of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He had excelled in the British Army and the feeling of rejection must have weighed heavily. Another major problem was that the Carney family had now lost two incomes, for both boys had been having their money sent home.

One way that Frank could help alleviate the family's financial burden was for him to try to obtain a pension from the British Army, and he applied for this in early 1916.  He had been in the army for a very short time, for just over one year, so the chances of success were not high. Sure enough, there was a very quick rejection note sent back from the British Army in April.

Patrick Crumley M.P.

Frank's father was now in his 60s, and there was no income coming into the house, so Frank persevered. There was at the time a War Pensions Committee set up in each county to help folk appeal pensions and entitlements decisions from the army. This body had been set up by the British Government, and the Fermanagh War Pensions Committee had all the elite of the County on its board. However, the appeal to the War Pensions Committee must also have failed, for Frank Carney went on to take his case even higher.

For the next step, Frank won the support of  a very eminent gentleman, Mr Patrick Crumley, who was MP for South Fermanagh at that time.

‘Honest Pat’ Crumley was a Catholic who was heavily involved in local politics, being on both the Enniskillen Board of Guardians and the Urban District Council. He was a much respected gentleman and in 1915 he became the first Catholic for three centuries to be appointed the Deputy Lieutenant of County Fermanagh.¹ 

Pat Crumley became an MP in 1912 and on the 20^th December 1916, 'Honest Pat' took to the floor of the House of Commons in London to raise the plight of Frank Carney and his family. This from Hansard: 

Mr. CRUMLEY

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will say why No. 1122, Sergeant F. Carney, 5th and 4th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, has been refused a pension or allowance on being discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit; is he aware that ex-Sergeant Carney is the son of a fisherman aged over sixty years who finds it impossible to support an invalid son who is unable to work, and that his only brother, No. 7830, Sergeant J. Carney, Royal Inniskillings, who contributed to the support of the home, was killed in Gallipoli, having served through the African campaign and been dangerously wounded in France when he won the Russian Cross of St. George; and will he, in the circumstances, have ex-Sergeant F. Carney's application reconsidered and a pension granted to him if possible? ² 

The question was asked of the Financial Secretary to the War Office who was Henry Forster, later to become Lord Forster, Governor General of Australia. Mr Forster gave a very logical response to Mr Crumley’s question:

Mr. FORSTER

This man's disability, bronchitis, had existed for several years before he joined the Army, and was not aggravated by his military service (which was all at home). He is therefore not eligible for a pension. I am inquiring about the other son.

In what looks very much like a pre-planned pincer movement, a Liberal MP for South Edinburgh, James Myles Hogge, then joined the discussion:

Mr. HOGGE
Was the man accepted as medically fit?
Mr. FORSTER
Presumably.
Mr. HOGGE
If he was accepted as medically fit, why did the War Office refuse a pension?
Mr. FORSTER
No one knows better than my Hon. Friend the rules under which we have to administer pensions at present.

The efforts of Frank Carney and Mr Pat Crumley eventually paid off, for Frank was granted a one-off gratuity of £48 in May of 1917. This was a large amount of money in those days, equating to roughly one year's salary for a Sergeant in the British infantry, and it was almost certainly delivered in gradual payments.

Frank Carney's Army Record

Another result of this campaign was that Frank became committed to helping other survivors and relatives obtain their entitlements from the British Army. In April 1918 he took his first public steps into political life when he was elected to the Fermanagh War Pensions Committee:

Fermanagh Herald, Friday, April 19, 1918

In later years, Frank was actively engaged in fighting against the British Army, they were his enemy. However, it seems that Frank retained a positive regard for those that he had served with and for his time in the British army.  In November 1916, six months after the Easter Rising, Frank applied for his army medal. This was the silver medal that he was entitled to for simply being in the Army during the war.

From Frank Carney's Army Record

During the Irish War of Independence and the beginning of the new Free State, the feeling towards those Irish people, both living and dead, who had become soldiers in the British Army changed dramatically. For many years there was great animosity to ex-British Soldiers, and only in the last few years here in Ireland have we openly laid wreaths on the graves of those who died in the First World War. Frank Carney, a staunch republican, was not one of those who condemned soldiers who had fought and died, and it is an indication of the true bravery of this man that he was not afraid to say it.

In a lovely little piece in the Irish Times at the time of Frank’s death, the writer of an ‘Irishman’s Diary’, who knew Frank Carney very well, says:

“Mr Carney was an ex-Serviceman having served in the Inniskilling Fusiliers during the War, and he never failed to champion the cause of the ex-soldiers at times when their champions were few.” ³ 

The same writer adds a little fact that he says he feels should be made public:

“When he joined the IRA, before the Truce, Mr Carney wrote to the British Pensions Department announcing his intention to fight against the British Forces and refusing to accept the pension any longer. The British authorities, however, ignored Mr Carney’s representations and his pension warrants piled up for several years.”

If this is true, then it is highly likely that Frank returned the hard-won pension very soon after it was awarded in May 1917. That precious stipend was probably a great help to his poor mother, Eliza Carney, and yet it is very likely that she saw precious little of the pension bonanza! 

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References:

¹ 'Honest Pat' - Patrick Crumley DL, MP, Malachy McRoe, Clogher Record, Vol. 20, No. 3 (2011), pp. 541-550, Published by: Clogher Historical Society

² Hansard NAVAL AND MILITARY PENSIONS AND GRANTS. HC Deb 20 December 1916 vol 88 cc1446-50

³ The Irish Times, Thursday, October 20, 1932, page 4

Episode 1 - Worthy of Honour
Episode 2 - Born to be a Soldier
Episode 3 - The Carney Brothers in World War I