Texas Pensions

S. 6294. Ethel M. Robards is the widow of the late Capt. Frank F. Robards, of the United States Marine Corps.

Capt. Robards was born in Texas March 13, 1874 . He entered the service May 3, 1898 , at the breaking out of the war with Spain , as quartermaster sergeant with the Second Texas Infantry Volunteers, and served as such until November 9, 1898 , when honorably discharged and mustered out. He was appointed second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps July 23, 1900 , and continued in active service until December 16, 1915 , when he was accidentally killed at Port au Prince , Haiti . He was promoted to first lieutenant to rank from March 3, 1903 , and to captain May 13, 1908 . He rendered honorable service in the Philippine Islands and participated in the capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico , in April, 1914. At the time of his death he was a member of the United States expeditionary forces to Haiti .

Mrs. Robards has made claim for pension through the regular channels at the Pension Bureau (No. 158470), which claim was rejected on the ground that her husband's death was not in the line of duty.

It appears that Capt. Robards was given permission to be absent from his company on the night of December 15, 1915 . The evidence shows that he with a party of other officers dined at a hotel at Port au Prince, Haiti, some 2 miles distant from the company headquarters, and about 12 o'clock midnight made his way back toward his headquarters on horseback, and some two blocks away from headquarters his horse slipped and he, the officer, fell to the pavement. A fracture at the base of the skull resulted, and he died from same in the field hospital December 16, 1915 . A board of officers was appointed to investigate the circumstances attending the officer's death, and report that the officer came to his from injuries sustained by being thrown from his horse at or about midnight of December 15-16, 1915, while riding toward the headquarters of the company which he commanded, and that his death was occasioned by an act of duty in which he was engaged.

The matter being submitted to the Secretary of the Navy, he held as follows:

The proceedings in the foregoing board of inquest are approved. From the evidence adduced the department holds that the death of Frank F. Robards, late captain, United States Marine Corps, was not occasioned by an act of duty in which he was engaged, not was it the result of his own misconduct.

The decisions of the Secretary of the Interior for many years have been to the effect that when a soldier or a sailor or marine is absent from his command or on leave or on a pass in pursuit of pleasure or to attend to private business and receives an injury while so absent, same can not be held as having been received in line of duty for pensionable purposes unless the absence was for the purpose of performing some quasi military or naval duty.

The Commissioner of Pensions held that the absence of Capt. Robards from his command under the circumstances recited was for his own pleasure, and that the injuries which caused his death were not received in line of duty, and so rejected the claim of the widow.

It should be considered, however, in connection with this case that Capt. Robards was not at any home station but was a member of the expeditionary forces to Haiti , sent there to preserve peace and order in the interests of our own Government and was in a status probably

of almost necessary continuous duty; he was on alien soil and among alien people where the conditions of living were undoubtedly hard. The camp of the troops was outside the town and Capt. Robards had been in to get dinner and was on his way back to his company when his forse stumbled and fell. Coupled with the permission to leave camp was also the implied order for his return within certain limits and it was while so returning that he met with the accident which occasioned his death.

Mrs. Robards married the deceased officer June 4, 1907, and has one minor child, William C. Robards, under the age of 16 years. She is 27 years of age and has no property or means of any kind for the support of herself and young child except such as she may earn by her own personal labor. The following letter from Senator Fletcher, who introduced the bill in the widow's behalf, is of interest in the case.

United States Senate.
February 12, 1917
Hon. Charles F. Johnson,
Chairman Committee on Pensions,
United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

My Dear Senator Johnson: This is to bespeak your kind interest in my bill (S6294), copy of which is herewith inclosed, granting a pension to Mrs Ethel Maura Robards.

Mrs. Robards is almost destitute. Her husband was Capt. Frank F. Robards, United States Marine Corps. He met his death in Haiti , December 16, 1915 , having been pitched from his horse, and sustained a fractured skull from which he died about six hours later. Besides his widow he left a son six years of age. The captain was on his way from dinner to join his company, stationed a little distance away from where he had dined, at the time of the tragedy. His widow applied for the pension provided under the general law for the widows of officers who died in the line of duty, and the Navy Department held that his death was in line of duty, but the Commissioner of Pensions, it seems, took a different view. It seems had the death occurred actually when he was at hand with the company, with all the other circumstances identical, there would have been no question about the granting of the pension. This explains my reason for having introduced the bill. It is a deserving case, and I feel that by all means the pension asked for in the bill should be granted to Mrs. Robards.

Will you not kindly look into the matter and do all that you can to expedite the bill becoming a law at the present session of Congress?

Yours, very sincerely,
Duncan U. Fletcher.

Capt. Robards saw active service, under fire, at Vera Cruz, as well as Haiti , and his record is without a blot.
You know how the Marines have landed and carried the flat to the front on every occasion.
D. U. F.

Your committee are of the opinion that the technicality as to whether this officer was in the line of duty when fatally injured should be waived and pension granted by special act at $20 per month with the usual additional allowance of $2 per month on account of the minor child, under the age of 16 years.

[Source: Pensions and increase of pensions for certain soldiers and sailors of the regular Army and Navy, etc.
February 22, 1917.
Serial Set Vol. No. 7113, Session Vol. No.B
64th Congress, 2nd Session
H.Rpt. 1532
Transcribed for Genealogy Trails by Terry Wages]
 

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