On this day in history – Page 78

On this day in history….2nd March 1882

On this day in history : 2nd March 1882 – Scotsman Roderick Maclean attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria as she waits to board her train at Windsor railway station….

Photograph by Alexander Bassano 1882. Public domain

Queen Victoria had just walked across the platform to the waiting carriage with her daughter, Princess Beatrice and other members of her court, when a shot rang out…. Roderick Maclean had stepped from a crowd of cheering onlookers, raised a gun and fired…. Before he could do so again the crowd, including a group of Eton schoolboys who hit him with umbrellas, managed to overcome him…. Maclean was then arrested by a Superintendent Hayes….

Queen Victoria with Princess Beatrice. Public domain via Wikimedia

Maclean had not been quite right in the head since a childhood accident. His father was the proprietor of ‘Fun’ magazine – a rival to ‘Punch’ – and so the family would have been comfortable and Roderick Maclean depended upon them financially…. When his parents died he had no means of an income and had to rely on handouts from his three brothers and sister….

As time passed by this help became less frequent, which frustrated Maclean – as a republican he directed his anger at the Monarchy…. He took to wandering from town to town and was becoming more and more like a tramp….

Maclean was also a ‘would-be’ poet and he sent some of his verse to Queen Victoria – but was angered by the response he received from the Palace….his work was returned to him accompanied by a curt note from a lady-in-waiting…. This appears to have finally tipped him over the edge…. Maclean sold his meagre possessions, bought himself a cheap and cheerful revolver….and then walked to Windsor….

In fact Maclean had already been certified as insane two years previously in June 1880….and had spent some time in a lunatic asylum. He had complained of headaches and thought that everybody in England was plotting against him…. He even had a problem with the colour blue and thought people who wore it did so to deliberately provoke him…. He had also sent some disturbing letters to his sister Caroline, in which he discussed murder….

Maclean went on trial in Reading on April the 20th 1882 on the charge of high treason….a crime then punishable by death…. However he was found ‘not guilty but insane’ – the jury took just five minutes to deliver their verdict…. Roderick Maclean spent the rest of his days in Broadmoor Asylum….he died of apoplexy in 1921….

Asylum for Criminal Lunatics, Broadmoor. Image credit : Wellcome Collection CC BY

On this day in history….1st March 1978

On this day in history : 1st March 1978 – The coffin of Charlie Chaplin is stolen from his grave in a Swiss cemetery….

Chaplin had spent the last few years of his life in Switzerland with his fourth wife, Oona…. He died peacefully at his home in Corsier-sur-Vevey by Lake Geneva on Christmas Day 1977, he was 88….

Charlie Chaplain – Image credit: Imsomnia Cured Here via Flickr

Four days later a simple family funeral service was held at the Anglican Church in Vevey, attended by his wife and eight children…. Afterwards Chaplain was laid to rest in the churchyard….

Two months later the grave was discovered empty…. The media had a field day with speculation…. It was claimed fans had stolen the body….or local anti-semites objected to a Jew being buried in a Christian graveyard – even that it was revenge by neo-Nazis for Chaplain’s film ‘The Great Dictator’….

But then the ransom demand came…. 600,000 Swiss francs for the body to be returned – the grave robbers also threatened to harm Chaplin’s younger children if the demands were not met…. Oona was having none of it and refused to pay up….“my husband is in Heaven and in my heart”….

Sir Charles Spencer “Charlie” Chaplain KBE and Oona 1965. Dutch National Archives – Public domain

Her phone was tapped – along with all 200 of the public phone booths in the area – and monitored by the police…. It worked – and the culprits were caught. Two Eastern European political refugees were responsible, Roman Wardas and Gantscho Ganev – both motor mechanics….

The pair showed police where they had buried the coffin in a cornfield…. Eleven weeks after it had disappeared the coffin of the British star of silent movies and early talkies was found, still intact – and it was re-buried in the original grave in the churchyard…. This time a concrete casing was placed over it….

Charlie Chaplian’s grave Image: Giramondo1 via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0

The perpetrators were prosecuted for grave robbery and attempted extortion…. Wardas was the ‘brains’ behind the plot and for that he received four years in prison – whereas Ganev got away with an 18-month suspended sentence….

British History

On this day in history….28th February 1888

On this day in history : 28th February 1888 – A little boy rides his tricycle in a Belfast street, watched by his father…. On the rear two wheels are a pair of pneumatic tyres….

The little boy’s name was Johnny – and he was the son of John Boyd Dunlop….a veterinary surgeon by profession, having studied at Edinburgh University. But Dunlop was also an inventor – and was used to working with rubber…. In 1867, after moving from Scotland to Ireland, he married Margaret Stevenson and they had two children, a boy and a girl….

It was whilst watching his son riding his tricycle on the cobbled street that Dunlop noticed the child looked uncomfortable and the tricycle could not move very fast on its solid rubber tyres….

He took the two rear wheels of the tricycle and wrapped them in thin layers of rubber…. He then inflated them with a football pump, using the top of a baby’s feed bottle as a valve…. He had formed the basis of the pneumatic tyre….

Dunlop first pneumatic bicycle tyre – National Museum of Scotland. Geni via Wikimedia GFDL CC BY-SA

So successful were these new tyres on Johnny’s tricycle that Dunlop began to have them commercially made…. Within a year a previously unknown cyclist began to win every race he entered by using the tyres on his bicycle…. Dunlop immediately patented his design….

In 1889, along with several other Dublin businessmen, he set up the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company…. A year later a factory was opened to make bicycle tyres and they were soon even exporting to Australia – followed by the USA in 1890….

In 1893 a factory was opened in Hanau, Germany and another in Australia…. The business was expanding rapidly and the tyres were selling all over the World…. To keep up with demand, in 1898 the operation was moved to bigger premises in Coventry. Then, in 1902, it relocated to a purpose build modern factory and offices – a huge site of more than 160 hectares, at Erdington near Birmingham…. It became known as Fort Dunlop….

By 1900 the company had started producing car tyres….

John Boyd Dunlop on his bicycle circa 1915 – Public domain

Old advertising sign in the Louwman Museum. Alf van Beem via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0

British History

On this day in history….27th February 1907

On this day in history : 27th February 1907 – The Old Bailey, London’s main criminal court, is officially opened – having been built on the site of the old Newgate Prison….

The original medieval court-house, next door to Newgate Prison, was destroyed in the Great Fire of London….it was rebuilt in 1674. Originally, the court was intended for the prosecution of crimes committed in the City of London and Middlesex…. However, it was in 1856 that concerns were raised in the case of William Palmer – a doctor accused of being a poisoner and murderer…. Such was public revulsion that it was feared he would not get a fair trial in Staffordshire, his home county…. Allowing his trial to take place at the Old Bailey set a precedent for future serious crimes….

An Old Bailey trial circa 1808. Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin – Public domain

Up until May 1868 the death penalty would be carried out in public…. Hangings took place in the street outside of the Old Bailey and Newgate Prison…. Huge crowds would gather to watch; stones, rotten fruit and vegetables would often be hurled at the condemned…. In 1807 the crowd was so unruly that a pie-seller’s stall over-turned, crushing 28 people to death…. As a result a covered tunnel was built between the prison and St. Sepulchre’s Church, opposite….it was known as ‘Dead Man’s Walk’. The condemned prisoner could be taken to be attended by the chaplain before the death sentence was carried out without facing the crowds….

Dead Man’s Walk – Old Bailey. Image credit: Matt Brown via Flickr

Towards the late 1800s more and more trials were being held at the Old Bailey and there were many people who wanted to watch….the building had become inadequate. Newgate Prison next door had become dilapidated as since the 1860s it no longer held long-term prisoners…. So, in 1877 it was decided to demolish both buildings to make room for a larger court….

Newgate Prison – pulled down in 1902 to make way for the Old Bailey. Image credit: Victor Keegan via Flickr

There were many delays but finally a new building, designed by E.W. Mountford in the neo-Baroque style – at a cost of £392,277 – was built and officially opened by King Edward VII…

Lady Justice statue – Old Bailey. Image credit: Lonpicman via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0

British History

On this day in history….25th February 1939

On this day in history : 25th February 1939 – The first Anderson shelter is erected in a garden in Islington, London…. 1.5 million are distributed before the outbreak of World War II….

Designed in 1938 by William Paterson and Oscar Carl Kerrison, the shelter was named after Sir John Anderson, the politician responsible for air-raid precautions and who initiated its design….

Made from corrugated galvanised steel, six curved panels would be bolted together at the top and then straight panels fixed to form four walls, with a door at one end…. The whole construction would then be half-buried and the roof covered with at least 15 inches of soil….

An Anderson shelter remains intact amidst destruction in Latham Street, Poplar, London during 1941. from the collections of the Imperial War Museums – Photograph D 5949

The shelters were issued free of charge to those families with an income of less than £5 per week (£300 in today’s terms)…. Higher earning families could buy one for £7…. The shelter would be supplied in kit form – everything required to build it would be included along with an instruction guide – but it was up to the family to erect it….

At 6ft high, 4.5ft wide and 6.5ft long the shelters were designed to accommodate up to six people…. How comfortable they were inside was up to the individual family – although incredibly strong, which gave reassurance, they were cold, damp and cramped inside….

Children in an Anderson shelter during frequent night-time German bombing raids on Bournemouth in 1942. Image credit: TheBrit CC BY-SA 4.0

It was possible to make the outside to look quite attractive, flowers and vegetables could be planted over them…. In fact some neighbourhoods held competitions for the prettiest shelter….

Porthcurno Telegraph Museum – Photo credit: Robin Stevens

Throughout the war period over 2.5 million Anderson shelters were erected. At the height of production John Summers & Sons Ironworks in Deeside were producing 50,000 per week….

For a small fee families were allowed to keep their shelter after the war – and indeed many were dug up and used for sheds….