Council row over cash to PC’s widow

There was debate among Stirling town councillors over whether a pension or a gratuity should be paid to the widow of a long-serving police officer.

Magistrates had recommended that a gratuity of £658 13 shillings and fourpence (almost £30,000 in today’s money) should be awarded to Mrs Legge, 3 Bruce Street, Stirling, whose late husband Constable Legge, had been a member of the Stirling Burgh Police Force for 32 years.

However, at a meeting of Stirling Town Council, treasurer Thomson was unhappy about the proposed gratuity which had been calculated on a ‘police pay rate that was still being objected to.’

He had been in touch with insurers who said they could provide 46-yearold Mrs Legge with a pension of £26 a year at a cost of £394 eight shillings and fivepence.

He said that since he became treasurer he had tried to ‘administer the public money as he would his own’ and he could therefore not support the gratuity proposal. He moved that a pension and not a gratuity be provided.

A Councillor Patrick said under the Police Act of 1890 authorities did have the option of granting a gratuity to retiring police officers. As far as he was aware all authorities had agreed to grant gratuities. Glasgow, for example, had never refused one and always ‘granted it on the highest scale’. He asked whether Stirling would be the ‘solitary exception’.

Chief Constable Nicol said Constable Legge’s service was two years short of that which, had he lived, would have qualified him for a pension equal to two-thirds of his salary.

Judge Soutar pointed out that the constable had been paying into the pension fund during his 32 years’ service and his widow was entitled to more than a pension of £26 a year suggested by treasurer Thomson.

The judge suggested they base the gratuity on Constable Legge’s average pay during his service.

It was, he added, ‘rather extreme’ that the gratuity should be fixed on the highest rate payable - a rate brought in only a few weeks before the constable’s death. He moved a £550 gratuity be paid.

However, Judge Barker said Constable Legge had an ‘absolutely clean record’ and should be paid the full amount.

Despite the protests of treasurer Thomson, the council granted overwhelmingly to grant the recommended gratuity of more than £658 to Mrs Legge.