Roderick Maclean
Roderick Maclean | |
---|---|
Broadmoor Asylum, England | |
Nationality | Scottish |
Known for | Attempted 1882 regicide of Queen Victoria |
Roderick Edward Maclean (c. 1854 – 8 June 1921) was a Scotsman who attempted to
The attempted murder followed the arrival of the
Birmingham Daily Gazette, 1921[5]
Other accounts state that the revolver was a toy and that his aim was disrupted by an
The weapon was a mere toy, and the life of the beloved monarch was not seriously endangered. A number of Eton boys were round the station at the time, and one of them rushed forward and struck Maclean with his umbrella, disconcerting his aim — which was unlikely enough, in any case, to have been accurate. The boy in question, Gordon Chesney Wilson, was called to the Castle by her Majesty and thanked for his promptitude. He was the son of Sir Samuel Wilson, the Australian wool magnate, who introduced salmon into the Australian rivers and afterwards sat in Parliament for a short time for Portsmouth. Gordon Wilson married Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, a sister of Lord Randolph and Lady Wimborne. He was killed in the early days of the war. The wretched lunatic, therefore, survived all the other chief actors in his poor little drama, paying dearly for his brief notoriety. He had, however, the distinction of undergoing trial for high treason. – Lichfield Mercury, 1921[6]
At his trial, Dr. Charles Vernon Hitchins testified that MacLean had been certified insane in June 1880, two years before the attempted assassination, and he had been sent to Somerset Lunatic Asylum. He was living at 14 Wadham Street in Weston-super-Mare. Dr. Hitchins stated that Maclean was complaining of headaches and believed that all the people in England are against him, and he felt he must injure someone because they are conspiring to deceive him. He had also sent letters to his sister in 1880, Caroline Maclean, stating that, "If I cannot commit a murder one way, I will another way, and all can add is, if there is more difficulty, there may be more victims." Multiple doctors also testified that Maclean was insane and "did not believe he was capable of appreciating the nature or quality of any act which he might commit."[1]
Tried for
A poem was later written about Maclean's attempt on the Queen's life by William Topaz McGonagall.[9]
References
- ^ a b "Trial for Maclean for High Treason". Weston Mercury. 22 April 1882. p. 5. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892
- ^ UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912
- ^ "From the archive, 4 March 1882: Queen Victoria survives assassination attempt". The Guardian. United Kingdom. 4 March 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- Birmingham Daily Gazette. 11 June 1921. p. 5. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ "High Treason". Lichfield Mercury. 17 June 1921. p. 6. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ Banerjee, A. (4 October 2013). "Queen Victoria's Would-Be Assassins: A Review of Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem and the Modernisation of the Monarchy, by Paul Thomas Murphy". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- ^ Murphy, Paul Thomas (2 March 2014). "Roderick Maclean's attempt, 2 March 1882: the Last First Report in the Times". Shooting Victoria. Pegasus Books. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
- ^ McGonagall, William (1882). "Attempted Assassination of the Queen". McGonagall Online.