| Date | 15 August 2006 |
|---|---|
| Source | Windsor Express |
| Reference | WN-0004 |
| Volume | WLHG in the News |
| Collection | WLHG in the News |
Transcript
1882 Express helps historian
IT is not every day the Windsor Express has a story about a man trying to shoot the Queen on Central Station. But it happened in 1882.
Historian Dr Brigitte Mitchell, who is chairman of Windsor Museum, went straight to the March 4, 1882, edition of our paper when she was asked by Meridian Television to front a news feature about Roderick McLean, who fired two shots at Queen Victoria as her coach drove out of the station straight off the royal train.
The transcript of McLean’s trial is being made available on the internet for the first time.
McLean fired his shots on March 2, 1882, and the incident was reported in the Express two days later. The Queen had a lucky escape as he missed her carriage but had two more bullets in the gun.
Dr Mitchell said: “A local photographer called James Burnside wrestled the gun out of McLean’s hand and Superintendent Hayes arrested him. McLean was heard to say ‘don’t hurt me’ as a group of Eton College boys nearly lynched him and one hit him repeatedly with his umbrella.” McLean, who had walked from Portsmouth and cited starvation as the cause for his attempt on the Queen’s life, was tried on April 20 and found ‘not guilty because insane’, spending the rest of his life in Broadmoor.
Dr Mitchell said: “The Queen was not happy with the verdict and as a result similar verdicts in the future were changed to ‘guilty but insane’.“
Ironically, Dr Mitchell was not able to watch herself on television when the feature was shown on Tuesday. She said: “I cannot get Meridian here in Windsor, which was a bit frustrating.“
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