Roderick Maclean. . . Maclean’s case file (BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1095, closed until 2022) reportedly suggests that he was resident in blocks other than Block 2, but he played for the Block 2 team several times in the early 1900s, according to the asylum’s cricket books (BRO: D/H14/G1/1/1 and D/H14/G1/1/2). He seems to have been in the Block 2 day room during the visit by Sims in 1902 (Sims notices that a man who had shot at the Queen is reading a copy of Punch in the day room occupied by the most affluent inmates). His sonnet-writing in Broadmoor is described in an article by Julius M. Price in the Westminster Budget of 21 January 1898 – Price, too, seems to have seen him in the Block 2 day room. Maclean’s case is described in Paul Thomas Murphy, Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy (2012). Maclean died in the asylum in 1921.
William Chester Minor. . . See Simon Winchester, The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words (1998); Church, ‘The Strange Case of Dr Minor: II’ in The Strand of January 1916; and Stevens, Broadmoor Revealed.
Some wore frock coats . . . See Steevens, Things Seen.
On one of his visits. . . From Sims’s article in Cassell’s Saturday Journal in 1902.
George Sims was invited into a bedroom. . . See Daily Mail, 21 November 1905.
Alfred Gamble. . . See Morning Post of 12, 15 and 21 October 1895; London Standard, 15 October, 4, 5 and 13 December 1895; Reynolds’s Newspaper, 29 October and 8 December 1895; Lloyd’s Weekly, 8 December 1895. The Daily Log of Admissions, Removals and Deaths, Male, January 1898–April 1913 (BRO: D/H14/D1/7/1/1) indicates that he was discharged to the Salvation Army colony in Hadleigh in 1917.
pronounced him an imbecile. . . See OBSP.
‘Journal of Mental Science’. . . In April 1896.
Sherlock Hare. . . See his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1553.
the queen’s sixtieth jubilee. . . See Reading Mercury, 3 July 1897.
swine fever. . . See Superintendent’s annual report of 1899 in BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1.
the Boer War. . . See Reading Mercury, 18 November 1899 and 17 March 1900.
Jonathan Lowe. . . See BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1779 and TNA: HO144/558/A60060. Lowe was in Block 5, the other of the two privilege blocks, when he wrote his letter, and was later transferred to Block 2. Another inmate who liked Broadmoor better than the world beyond its walls was August Deneis (or Denies), a Dutchman who was detained in the asylum in 1886, having attacked his wife with a mallet. He was discharged as sane in 1895, and entrusted to the care of his children in France, but in November 1896 he turned up at the asylum gates, begging to be readmitted. He died in Broadmoor in 1903. See Deneis’ case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1714.
Lloyd’s Weekly. . . 7 August 1898.
A former inmate. . . Brailsford’s letter is in Lowe’s case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1779.
One elderly inmate. . . See ‘A Visit to Broadmoor: a Day among Murderers’, Pall Mall Gazette, 17 February 1886.
‘those that know not what they do. . .’ See Steevens, Things Seen. The inmate was alluding to Christ’s words on the Cross, cited in the Gospel According to Luke: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’
the lunacy commissioners. . . See Partridge, Broadmoor.
Thomas Cutbush. . . See his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1523. Cutbush died in the asylum in 1903.
Arthur Gilbert Cooper. . . See Morning Post, 16 November 1887. He died in the asylum in 1927.
One morning in May. . . See Pett’s case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1689.
In November 1898, at the age of sixteen. . . See Daily Log of Admissions, Removals and Deaths, Male, January 1898–April 1913 (BRO: D/H14/D1/7/1/1).
CHAPTER 14: TO HAVE YOU HOME AGAIN
a letter written by Emily Coombes. . . Exhibit J in TNA: CRIM 1/42/9.
‘the nice little home. . .’ In Urwick (ed.), Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities, Reginald Bray reflects on the working-class ideal of ‘the little home’, which consisted not of the rented house itself but its moveable contents – the tables and chairs and pictures and ornaments. He notes the ‘pride and affection’ that the typical working family took in ‘the little home that they have got together’.
‘your mother or Annie’. . . That is, her husband’s mother Mary Coombes and his widowed sister Anne, who lived together in Lockhart Street by Bow cemetery.
‘Mrs Cooper. . .’ Robert at first pretended that his mother was visiting a Mrs Cooper when his aunt confronted him in the back parlour on 17 July 1895.
That Sunday’s newspapers. . . For instance, Lloyd’s Weekly of 7 July 1895 reported that meat prices were ‘still depressed’ but ‘firmer than last week’. The same paper carried an advertisement for Light Ahead at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, the play that Robert and Nattie were to attend two days later.
hazy with heat. . . See Evening News and London Daily News, 8 July 1895.
219–20presumably to sell or pawn. . . It was common practice to pawn blankets and coats in the summer, with the intention of redeeming them in winter. See Tebbutt, Making Ends Meet.
CHAPTER 15: IN THE PLASTIC STAGE
Robert was allowed back. . . See Daily Log of Admissions, Removals and Deaths, Male, January 1898–April 1913 (BRO: D/H14/D1/7/1/1).
worked in the tailors’ shop. . . Notes in his file (BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671) indicate that he was working there in May 1896 and on 18 November 1904. ‘Shows a fair degree of application at work in tailor’s shop,’ according to a note dated 5 April 1897. In total, according to the Superintendent’s reports, about forty-five men worked in the various workshops.
They cut the winter jackets. . . See Superintendent’s annual reports in BRO: D/H14/A2/1/1 and ‘Warmark’, Guilty but Insane.
an eighth of the going rate. . . See Griffith, Sidelights on Convict Life.
Charles Leach Pike. . . His appointment as master tailor was announced in the London Gazette of 2 January 1895. The Reading Mercury noted his participation in many shows and concerts over the next twenty years.
vice-captain of the Broadmoor Cycling Club. . . Reading Mercury, 18 March 1899.
The costumes for the shows. . . Reading Mercury, 2 January 1904.
an enthusiastic member of the asylum’s brass band. . . Notes in Robert’s file (BRO: D2/2/1/1671) in 1905, 1907 and 1911 indicate that he was playing in the ‘asylum band’, presumably the brass band, and in 1907 he was said to take a ‘great interest’ in it. Since he emerged from Broadmoor able to play the violin and piano as well as the cornet it is likely that he also played with the string band, which was accompanied by the tailor Charles Pike and included Block 2 staff such as Coleman and Block 2 patients such as Frank Rodgers.
The editor of ‘The British Bandsman’. . . Sam Cope, quoted in Trevor Herbert, The British Brass Band: A Musical and Social History (2000).
a concert on the Broadmoor cricket pitch. . . Reading Mercury, 2 June 1900.
his impersonation in November 1900. . . Reading Mercury, 24 November 1900.
Sherlock Hare. . . See his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1553.
the death of Queen Victoria. . . Reading Mercury, 26 January and 9 February 1901.
the coronation. . . Reading Mercury, 13 December 1902.
a fireball. . . Reading Mercury, 16 June 1900.
an attendant’s three-year-old son. . . Reading Mercury, 30 June 1900.
an attendant was invalided out. . . Reading Mercury, 8 November 1902.
Coleman hurried to the aid of William Chester Minor. . . Minor was discharged to the care of his brother in America in 1910.
‘RAC rather depressed. . .’ Noted in his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671.
excelled at billiards. . . Noted in 1902 in his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671, and reported in Martin Smith’s blog streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk.
a frayed old table. . . See Griffith, Sidelights on Convict Life. ‘I should say that it dates from somewhere in the Fifties,’ observes Griffith. ‘At any rate, it looks a great deal old
er than the asylum itself, although, of course, it amply fulfils its purpose, and is quite as suitable for the playing of a match between a homicide and an incendiary as the most up-to-date exhibition table would be.’
taking bets in batches of tobacco. . . See Sims’s article of 1902 in Cassell’s Saturday Journal.
allotted an ounce of tobacco. . . See Griffith, Sidelights on Convict Life.
Dr Brayn used to tell. . . See Hargrave Lee Adam, The Story of Crime: From the Cradle to the Grave (1908).
played chess. . . According to a note in his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671, reported in streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk.
Edward Oxford. . . and Richard Dadd. . . See Stevens, Broadmoor Revealed, Murphy, Shooting Victoria, and streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk.
Reginald Saunderson. . . See TNA: CRIM1/41/4 and Winslow, Mad Humanity. For his chess prowess, and details of the match in which he and Robert competed between 1903 and 1904, see Tim Harding, Correspondence Chess in Britain and Ireland 1824–1987 (2010) and streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.co.uk. Reginald Treherne Bassett Saunderson died in Broadmoor in 1943.
both Robert and Saunderson played cricket. . . For cricket players, see cricket score books at BRO: D/H14/G1/1/1 (July 1904 to Aug 1906) and D/H14/G1/1/2 (June 1907 to July 1908).
the asylum’s strictures on cricket. . . See Rules for the Guidance of Officers, Attendants, and Servants of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
the Reverend Hugh Wood. . . See cricketarchive.com. Wood left Broadmoor in 1906 and was succeeded by the Reverend Albert Whiteley, a Yorkshire grammar-school boy and Cambridge graduate who remained at the asylum until 1934.
the laying of a new pitch. . . See Partridge, Broadmoor.
Sandhurst Royal Military College and the Windsor police. . . See cricket score book 1907–08, BRO: D/H14/G1/1/2.
listed in the local paper. . . Reading Mercury, 6 July 1907.
George Melton. . . See London Standard, 13 March 1896, and BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1695.
Henry Spurrier. . . See Hampshire Advertiser, 18 February 1899. According to the admissions register (BRO: D/H14/D1/1), he was discharged to the care of the Salvation Army in 1923.
Kenneth Murchison. . . One of the best gunners in South Africa, Murchison had played a decisive part in the battle of Cannon Kopje at the beginning of the siege of Mafeking. When the Boers prepared to attack Mafeking on 31 October 1899, Colonel Baden-Powell sent about fifty men to fight them off from a small hill outside the walls. Murchison was put in charge of a seven-pounder cannon, which he used to tremendous effect, and by the end of the day the small band of British soldiers had defeated a force of about a thousand Boers. The next evening, Murchison dined at Dixon’s Hotel in Mafeking with a British war reporter. The pair drank heavily and in the course of the meal Murchison’s companion began to taunt him, accusing him of knowing nothing about guns; as they left the hotel, the journalist followed the lieutenant out into the town square, still goading him. Murchison suddenly pulled out his pistol and shot the man dead. Afterwards Murchison was bewildered and distraught, claiming to have no memory of the shooting. Pending his court-martial, he was confined in a gaol in Mafeking, from which he was temporarily released – with a rifle – when the Boers launched a heavy attack on the town in May 1900. He helped to drive back the enemy by nightfall and then returned to his cell. In June 1900, after the relief of Mafeking, Murchison was court-martialled by Baden-Powell, found guilty and sentenced to death. Thanks to a petition by his friends, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was sent to Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. In 1902, the South African war ended with a British victory over the Boers. After further pleas for clemency, Murchison was deemed to have been insane at the time of his crime, and was transferred to Broadmoor. See Oxford Journal, 11 August 1900, Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 June 1900, Warwick Argus, 22 September 1900, and TNA: HO144/946/A61992. He died in Broadmoor in 1917.
Thomas Shultz. . . See trial in OBSP. Shultz was discharged to the care of his father in 1910.
Frank Rodgers. . . Account of his crime from the Cambridge Daily News, 3 and 4 June 1904, and the Herts and Cambs Reporter and Royston Crow, 14, 15, 16, 21 and 29 April 1904, reproduced on meldrethhistory.org.uk. Details of his crime and his time in Broadmoor from TNA: HO144/995/119149.
Thomas Anstey Guthrie’s ‘Vice Versa’. . . The boy in this novel is discussed in Nelson, Precocious Children and Childish Adults.
Granville Stanley Hall’s ‘Adolescence’. . . Quotes from Ferrall and Jackson, Juvenile Literature and British Society 1850–1950. Hall claims that psychoses and neuroses are especially common in early adolescence. He reminds his readers of ‘the omnipresent dangers of precocity’ in ‘our urbanised hothouse life, that tends to ripen everything before its time’, and recommends that a child be encouraged to visit nature, the ‘wild, undomesticated stage from which modern conditions have kidnapped and transported him’. Quoted in Shuttleworth, The Mind of the Child.
He was one of 175 patients. . . See Partridge, Broadmoor.
Patrick Knowles. . . See TNA: T1/11342 and TNA: HO144/11429.
In his fifteen years in charge. . . See Partridge, Broadmoor.
In the most recent of these. . . See Gwen Adshead, ’A transient frenzy?’, British Medical Journal, 1 August 1998.
The band played. . . Reading Mercury, 3 February 1912.
Dr Brayn had taken the view. . . In a report in Robert’s case file (BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671) dated 20 July 1905, Brayn assessed his mental condition as ‘rational and tranquil’, but replied ‘yes’ when asked whether his insanity might recur if he were discharged. A Home Office note in the file suggests that the same assessment was made each May between 1906 and 1911.
As Brayn told a visiting journalist. . . See Griffith, Sidelights on Convict Life.
Baker wrote to the home secretary. . . Letter in Robert’s case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671.
‘He is not likely to trouble the Broadmoor authorities. . .’ From ‘Mustard & Cress’, a column written by George Sims under the alias Dagonet, Sunday Referee, 22 September 1895.
he handed back his uniform. . . For the discharge process, see ‘Warmark’, Guilty but Insane.
in the custody of Charles Pike. . . According to a note in Robert’s case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671.
PART V: WITH TRUMPETS AND SOUND OF CORNET
CHAPTER 16: SMOOTH IN THE MORNING LIGHT
An Essex woman. . . See Chelmsford Chronicle, 15 March 1912.
Colony at Hadleigh. . . For a history of the colony, see H. Rider Haggard, The Poor and the Land: Report on the Salvation Army Colonies in the United States and at Hadleigh, England, with Scheme of National Land Resettlement (1905) and Regeneration: Being an Account of the Social Work of the Salvation Army in Great Britain (1910); Mark Sorrell, ‘The Farm Colony at Hadleigh, Essex’ in Essex Journal, spring and winter 1992; Anon, Hadleigh: The Story of a Great Endeavour (Salvation Army Press, 1902); Walter Besant, ‘The Farm and the City’, Living Age, 29 January 1898; Anon, ‘Up from Despair: the Salvation Army Industrial Colony at Hadleigh’ in Boston Evening Transcript, 4 May 1901; Gordon Parkhill and Graham Cook, Hadleigh Salvation Army Farm: A Vision Reborn (2008).
The Salvation Army. . . See Pamela J. Walker, Pulling the Devil’s Kingdom Down: The Salvation Army in Victorian Britain (2002) and Boone, Youth of Darkest England.
8,000 of the 11,000 Mancunians who volunteered for service. . . See Urwick (ed.), Studies of Boy Life in Our Cities, which also reported that 30 per cent of young men examined for the Army nationwide were rejected as unfit, and a further 40 per cent were thrown out in their first two years of service. The decline in men’s health was attributed by the author to the massive shift of population over the previous fifty years from the country to the town.
‘We came down in a farm wagon. . .’ Quoted in an illustrated guide to the Hadleigh farm colony published by the Salvation Army in 1926.
despatched to Canada. . . Essex Newsman, 29 March 1912.
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he wrote to the chief steward. . . Robert’s requests and acknowledgements, addressed to Alexander Sayer at Broadmoor from Castle House in Hadleigh, are in his case file, BRO: D/H14/D2/2/1/1671.
He could see. . . Description of the view adapted from the Salvation Army publication Hadleigh: the Story of a Great Endeavour.
Robert’s father had moved out. . . When he left London as chief steward on the France on 10 October 1895, he gave his address as 509 Barking Road, Plaistow – see NMM: RSS/CL/1895/60015 SS France.
found time to visit his son. . . A note in Robert’s case file, BRO: D2/2/1/1671, shows that his father visited on 26 November 1895 – no further visits were recorded from him or anyone else, but the case files rarely include such records and no visitors’ log from the period survives.
Charlie Sharman was declared bankrupt. . . For his bankruptcy and theft from clients, see Essex Newsman, 12 September 1896, and Chelmsford Chronicle, 20 November 1896. For his alleged assault, see Chelmsford Chronicle, 19 February 1897. For his career in organised crime, see James Morton, East End Gangland (2009). He was convicted of theft at the Old Bailey in 1925, at the age of seventy-five, and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude. He died in 1933, five years after his release from Dartmoor prison.
Nattie remained the smaller. . . See his Royal Navy record, TNA: ADM 188/500/306663.
‘the lowest class of sailorman’. . . Robert Machray, The Night Side of London (1902).
Nattie had been scarred. . . See his Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy records, TNA: ADM 188/500/306663 and NAA: A6770, Coombes NG.
The stokers ‘come and go. . .’ In Chadwick et al., Ocean Steamships.
He had been lent. . . See Nattie’s RAN record of service, NAA: A6770, Coombes NG.
HMAS ‘Australia’. . . See Vince Fazio, The Battlecruiser HMAS Australia, First Flagship of the Royal Australian Navy: A Story of Her Life and Times (2000) and www.navy.gov.au/hmas-australia-i.
‘I have been down many coal mines. . .’ See Maitland Daily Mercury, 27 September 1913 .
The Wicked Boy: The Mystery of a Victorian Child Murderer Page 30
