JSM - edition one

D ennis C ollins I was born in Cork, southern Ireland in 1775. Me pa died when I was a wee lad so I was raised by me ma most of me life. I had two older sisters growing up as well. When I was finally old enough, I joined the Royal Navy and not long went by before I was fighting alongside Britain against France at the battle of Waterloo in the early 1790s. Britain won the battle as well as the right to the sea. I was thrilled that I had helped Britain to success. Me leg though was injured when it got trapped under the fallen mast of the H.M.S Atlanta at sea. It was soon amputated and depression got the better of me. How was a man like meself with a wooden leg ever going to get work during the great depression of the post-Napoleonic-period? I received a pension from the British government but some years later, it was taken away from me without explanation. Why would they do that to a man like meself in a time like that? I was useless now and all I had was that pension. I was determined to get me deserved money back so I tried to dig up an explanation but couldn’t get one. In 1832, desperate times called for desperate measures. I petitioned the King, William IV (4th). I was turned down yet again by the King himself. And he didn’t even think to give me an explanation. By this point, I was fumin’. He would soon find out what he had comin’. In July, 1832, I went to the Ascot races and spent a lot of money to carry out this grand plan of mine. The night previously, I had walked from London and slept in a shed to ensure that I would follow my plan. I made sure that I got as close to where the King would be sitting as any commoner could. When the King entered, I waited a little while before I threw two stones at the King as hard as I could. I knocked his forehead pretty hard and his hat fell off. I heard the Kind scream, “Oh my God! I am hit!” That was just the first stone. The second one didn’t hit anybody but it did manage to make it inside the box – which is where the Royal man himself sat. I was caught by a member of the crowd who I realised some time later was Captain Smith. I remember bunking with him when I was in the navy. I was outraged that he would capture me after all we’d been through together in the small cabin. They wrote a newspaper report about me and his is what I remember it saying: ‘The ruffian had scarcely thrown the stone when he was seized by a gentleman who proved to be Cap- tain Smith, of the Royal Navy, and by another gentleman, named Turner, who had been witnesses to the transaction.’ I read up to there and threw the newspaper down. I was furious and thought that my life was over and I had nothing to prove in life. I was called on to make a statement and this is what I said: “I own that I committed a great fault in throwing the stones at the King.” I then went on to say stuff about me being a pensioner and that I was sorry, I was because I had thought about my actions and regretted them a short time after. I also stated that I broke the law and must suffer the consequences – as well as Sir R. Keats who also broke the law by taking my pension from me.

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JSM Edition One