Origin
Originally conceived as a charity, the Chest was established after many seamen who had been disabled in the war against Spain petitioned Queen Elizabeth for relief and maintenance. Although the Chest was financed at first entirely by members' contributions of sixpence per month, the Government had to give a pay rise first. The main credit for founding it probably belongs to Charles Howard, Lord Howard of Effingham (1536–1624), the Lord High Admiral of England. Pensions were granted on a fixed scale, the amounts of which ranged from £6.13s.4d per annum for the loss of a limb to £15 per annum for the loss of both arms. In addition each pensioner was granted an immediate lump sum, generally equal to one year's pension, called "smart money".
Read more about this topic: Chatham Chest
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“The origin of storms is not in clouds,
our lightning strikes when the earth rises,
spillways free authentic power:
dead John Brown’s body walking from a tunnel
to break the armored and concluded mind.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed,—a, to me, equally mysterious origin for it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)