AFTERMATH - The Lighthouse - page 58

thur is 32 years of age with a family of two, a boy age 10, and a girl age 7 years, both
at school. She came here 7 years ago with her late husband when he got his discharge
from the Royal Engineers, afterwards being 5 years in the reserve. He was a native of
Breascleit.ShewasbornandbroughtupinGravesend,England,andcangetnothingto
do here to earn a livelihood. If she had the means to pay her way she would go to her
native place where she has friends and might get something to do for herself.
I am Sir
Your Most Obedient Servant
William Ross 6
The circumstances under which payments of gratuities were made for deaths in service
were already well laid out, and it is to the credit of the NLB that they tried to look bey-
ondthecoldhardfactstoseethehumanelementinvolvedbehindthetragedy,especially
so in the case of Mrs Macarthur who was far away from her family and friends with
two young children to support. The NLB accountant, William Boat, prepared a report
on what payments and gratuities would be available to the dependants. The accountant
acknowledges the strange circumstances in the first line of his report 7 :
In consequence of the mysterious disappearance of the Lightkeepers on duty on the
FlannanIslandslighthouseonorabout15December1900,thequestionofpensionand
gratuities, under the treasury warrant regulating the grant of Gratuities and Allowances
under section I of the Superannuation Act 1887, comes up for consideration, regarding
which I beg to report as follows 8 :
The accountant then goes on to list the men's details of their service with the NLB be-
fore stating what the strict entitlement would be under the terms of the 1887 Superan-
nuation Act, which was basically to cover civil service workers who were killed in the
line of their work. This came under Scale II of the Act which covered what was to be
paid out to the widows and children of the deceased. The pension payable to the wid-
owswasnottoexceed 10 ⁄ 60 oftheirhusband'ssalaryandanyemoluments,or£10ayear
- whichever was greater.
The gratuity to the children of the deceased was not to exceed £1, multiplied by the
total number of their years, starting from their ages at the time of their father's deaths
and ending at fifteen years. The total gratuity payable was not to be less than £10 or
more than £50 in each case. Both James Ducat and Thomas Marshall came under these
terms and allowances.