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A Chelsea pensioner is an in-pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a retirement home and nursing home for former members of the British Army located in Chelsea, London. The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 retired British soldiers, located on Royal Hospital Road. Historically, the phrase applied more widely, referring to both in-pensioners and out-pensioners. ==In- and out-pensioners== The Royal Hospital was founded by King Charles II in 1682 as a retreat for veterans.〔Guidebook, p. 3〕 The provision of a hostel rather than the payment of pensions was inspired by Les Invalides in Paris.〔 During the reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, the Royal Hospital was still under construction so they introduced a system for distribution of army pensions in 1689. The pension was to be made available to all former soldiers who had been injured in service, or who had served for more than 20 years. By the time the Hospital was completed, there were more pensioners than places available in the Hospital. Eligible ex-soldiers who could not be housed in the Hospital were termed out-pensioners, receiving their pension from the Royal Hospital but living outside it. In-pensioners, by contrast, surrender their army pension and live within the Royal Hospital. In 1703 there were 51 out-pensioners. By 1815 this figure had risen to 36,757. The Royal Hospital remained responsible for distributing army pensions until 1955, following which the phrase "out-pensioner" became less common, and "Chelsea pensioner" was used largely to refer to "in-pensioners". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chelsea pensioner」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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