Widow's Pension

[SMG65]

Does anyone know how much pension a widow of a Private would have got after he had been killed in the Great war?

[Jonathan Saunders]

The amount varied from what I can ascertain and was awarded on such issues as the number of dependents and the medical/earning powers of the nuclear family unit.

If the widow remarried I think I am right in saying she lost teh pension and awards I have come across from memory were reviewed or stopped after a given period.

Also there were instances where mother's were given an allowance against a son's death during WW1 if he had given her an allowance from his wages.

[J T Gray]

Someone actually told me last Thursday what his mother got after his father was killed. He'd be remembering it in the later 1920s, but I suspect that it would not be a great deal more than when it was first issued - I don't think inflation was a major component of UK prices until the 1970s.

Remember the caveats of course, but I'll look it up over the weekend and you will at least have an idea.

Adrian

[Jim Gordon]

SMG65

I am not free to quote figures but this I can tell you --- the pension awarded to the widow of a Canadian casualty was very significantly greater than that awarded to British widows. I have personal knowledge of this as my Canadian Uncle was killed at Vimy Ridge.

Regards

Jim Gordon

[J T Gray]

My correspondent (always wanted to say that!) reckons his mother was getting 36 shillings and eightpence a week. This at a time when the average labourers wage was about 22 shillings. Given that she was a widow with one son, she was actually financially very well off - the postmistress would joke, if she didn't collect it one week, about getting her a security guard for the double collection!

Whether the amount was increased for additional children I don't know - she lived with her father which must have helped, and when he lost a job got a house from a local landowner whose pet cause was looking after war widows - but as a woman with a child I suspect that it was assumed her earning capability was low.

Hope that helps!

Adrian

[Muerrisch]

Pay Warrant 1914 [there was one increase late in the war but not marvellous]

Widow: 5/-, with 1/6d for each child [boys under 14, girls under 16]. In other words, almost exactly the same as the soldier was drawing, and therefore an increase on what the family was living on with him still alive.

Certainly lost if widow remarried, but at that time she was given a year's-worth as a gratuity in a lump sum.

[SMG65]

To all who replied.

Thankyou for your help and assistance.

[Guest pwt]

I was at NA last week and on one of the records I was able to find one of my wifes ancestors who was KIA had previously married a widow with Three kids, had added two of his own before being killed and the widow and Five kids had been awarded a pension of 31/3 a week. (£1.57, by my reckoning)

Paul