The Sandhurst Fires.
Reported drastic measures.
It was reported at Camberley last evening that the War Office have taken a drastic step in reference to the alleged recent incendiary fires at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Although no official information is forthcoming, it is stated that the authorities have issued an order tot he effect that unless the culprit or culprits are discovered within forty-eight hours from six o’clock on Monday evening, the whole of the C Company of gentlemen cadets, numbering about sixty, is to be rusticated from the college. Some ofthe cadets state that the order has been issued, and that great indignation prevails in reference to it. Three of the five fires that have taken place at the College have occurred in the C Company’s quarter.
Shields Daily News, 2nd July 1902.
The Sandhurst Fires.
Pyro-maniac.
War Office rigour.
Distorted rumours having gained currency as to recent alarming occurrences in the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, a member of our staff was sent down yesterday to make inquiry on the spot, and was fortunate enough to obtain authentic particulars, given quite unofficially. The college for the instruction and training of cadets for immediate service as officers in the Army is a large building, capable of receiving between 300 and 400 students, and is a sort of quasi-barrack, with something of the style and tone of an extra large mansion. The grounds are extensive and grand, quite half a mile in diameter, magnificently wooded, and containing gardens, lawns, large recreation grounds, and a beautiful lake for rowing and fishing, ornamented just now with a superb display of rhododendrons. Discipline without being too severe or exacting is sufficiently strenous to leave the students with no longer intervals than two hours at a time in the daily duties, beginning at seven o’clock in the morning, and ending at ten o’clock at night. Even after the half-past seven mess an hour’s book work is exacted.
No change in routine or discipline was rendered necessary by the report on military education, nor does there appear to be any substantial ground for supposing that the students and their military tutors and officers were on other than terms which were mutually agreeable. The cadets in residence, numbering upwards of three hundred, drawn mainly from good families, are, in fact, young men of blood and breeding, as the phrase runs. The fees are £60 per term for the two terms in the year required to fit the student for examination. Those who pass enter the Army as second lieutenants. The few who fail are entitled to another term’s study, and the very few failures after that may still cram for a third and last chance. The rejected at that stage scarcely exceed one per cent. The College is under the chief control of General Markham. Col. Talbot is second in command.
Up to a period dating back scarcely three months nothing of particular consequence occurred, byond the frolics common to young men in that class of life, especially, perhaps, among those who can afford to keep their own polo ponies and use them. A sort of a cap and gown escapade which nearly broke up Blackwater Fair three years ago was up to the time stated about the only serious affair that is generally remembered. Accounts of strange occurrences within the last three months vary considerably, but it may be taken as substantially accurate to say that within this period no less than five unaccountable fires have been detected in the building. One was of a serious character, requiring the use of fire engines to extinguish, and threatening to spread. Another was in an office where, as it chanced, there were a few cordite cartridges and a few blank shells, but, as our correspondent was assured, no gunpowder. Now cordite does not explode from ignition, but by detonation from a sharp blow, and this, of course, would be known to all the cadets. Rumour, with its thousand tongues, magnified that occurrence into a fire next door to the ammunition room. There is no ammunition room at Sandhurst College. Another fire antecedent to that, which was the latest, and occurred only last week, was in one of the rooms of the A Company. The other three fires, at irregular intervals, were in rooms of the C Company, and it is from this circumstance that suspicion fell more upon that company than any other. In most instnaces the things ignited were boxes or articles of that kind, and, with one or two exceptions, no very serious damage was done before the fire was discovered and extinguished.
A most singular part of the affair is that all these occurrences arose on Wednesdays, between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, at irregular intervals. And that it is more perhaps than any other circumstance which seems to point to some personal idiosyncrasy or pyromania, to some person who, though mad on one point, had sufficient method in his madness to select a Wednesday for his operations. Cases of special dementia amongst people otherwise sane enough are sufficiently numerous to be almost familiar in all ranks of life. Inter-collegiate and rigorous military inquiry was as a matter of strict duty made in each case, but without result. Arrests, or rather detentions, and suspensions were made, but further than this the inquiries failed to trace the culprit.
Reports of the fires reached the War Office, and led to an edict that if another occurred the whole of the students in the College were to be “gated” and then week-end leave stopped. Another fire did occur, and the collegians were “gated.” That is to say, none were allowed to pass beyond the boundary of the grounds. A good deal of disaffection arose from this peremptory order, not as against the officers in command, but wholly and solely against the War Office. It was felt to be an act scarcely justifiable to punish three hundred young men for the fault of a single person, who might not even be one of themselves. In this condition of feeling, and while the gating order was in force, there chanced to be a Foresters’ fete in the village, just outside the grounds. After mess the students, in their military mess-dress and without caps, were out in these grounds and heard the festive strains of the Foresters’ fete. Flesh and blood could stand the restraint no longer, and with or without more ado, as the case may have been, the cadets broke bounds and poured out of the grounds into the village and marched along the middle of the road to the recreation ground, half-amile, shouting and singing at the top of their voices, but not molesting either person or property. Here, again, rumour had it that they carried the roundabouts by storm, adn rode the wooden horses without paying for their mounts. But, as rumour was in this case represented by a bright civilian youth of fifteen, his own particular predeliction may have led him into jumping at a conclusion. An intelligent police officer, who was on duty at the time, says there was no occasion for police interference. Military officers at the College had got wind of what was going on, and no sooner did they appear, though capless, among the cadets, than all shouting ceased and the students went quietly back to the College. It seems to be true that they did so push a roller into the depths of the lake, but this was not the first time the feat had been performed, before ever incendiary fires were dreamt of. There does not seem to be any truth in the rumour that the cadets serenaded with rough music the quarters of their principal officer.
But the offence of breaking bounds was a breach of discipline which could not be overlooked. The War Office ordered that every membre of the C Company should be called upon to state where he was at a given day and hour, and to support his own statement by the evidence of witnesses. 31 out of the 60 constituting the company did so, 29 did not. Some of those declared they were int heir rooms, but they could not bring forward anyone else to substantiate their statements. All the 29 were thereupon rusticated, and will lose one term. The £60 which their parents had paid for the term ending with this month will be practically lost, because each of the 29 will have to enter on another and extra term after the vacation, and pay another £60 for a course of study already gone through. A still harder feature of the case is that six months’ service in the Army will be lost. All this means a very serious loss to some of the parents, who maya have been barely able to find sufficient funds for the two terms. And if in the meantime the one and only real culprit should be discovered, will the War Office reinstate the innocent? The 48 hours allowed for the 29 to make and substantiate the declaration as to their whereabouts having expired on Wednesday night, all of them were required to leave the College yesterday. This they all did singly or in small parties, according to the direction of their homes. Some drove, some walked, and some cycled to the railway stations, having their luggage sent on. All looked most doleful, and one at least, whom our correspondent saw, had evidently been in tears. To many of the 29 the rustication must be very “hard lines.”
Mr Winston Churchill M. P. , has given notice to ask the Secretary of State for War whether it is a fact, as stated, that, because of the outbreak of certain fires at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, the whole of the cadets have been punished for the purpose of securing the detection of the offender; what reasons there were for supposing all the cadets so penalised were accessory to the offence; by whose initiative this action was taken; and whether these methods of punishment have the approval of the Commander-in-Chief. Furthermore, whether it is true that another fire has lately occurred in consequence, of which 29 cadets have been rusticated; what proof is forthcoming of their complicities, and on what principles have these cadets in particular been selected. The question will be answered on Monday.
Daily News (London), 4th July 1902.
The Sandhurst Fires.
It is only a few days since the Commission which inquired into our Military education system reported the existence of a most alarming state of things. We have not had to wait long before receiving confirmation of the Committee’s report in its worst features, the riotous conduct of the cadets at Sandhurst, and the panic-stricken and impotent condition of the authorities of the Royal Military College, supplying all the material that was necessary to vindicate its strictures to the hilt. In connection with Sandhurst the Committee reported “lack of supervision” and “divided responsibility,” that there was absolutely no inducement to work on the part of the students and non inducement to teach on the part of the teachers. As to discipline, the cadets are forbidden to pay their servants, but they do so. “As a result of the system,” says the report, “one of the first lessons which the cadet receives is that it is a venial thing to disobey orders.” Later on, he naturally comes to regard it as being out of the fashion to be “keen,” and to look upon keenness as not “good form.” The “correct thing” among these prospective leaders of men is “to do as little as they possibly can.”
But let us go back to the College. “At Sandhurst”, continues the report, “each cadet is asked to sign, in succession, a monthly certificate on a lithographed form, to the effect that he has not paid his servant during the month. The result is only what might be expected. This certificate is regarded by the cadets as a mere matter of form, all of them signing it.”
Outrages of fire and revolt have recently occurred at Sandhurst. Four fires broke out in the spring, and as the culprit, or culprits, could not be discovered, a War Office order stopped all leave. This brought about a breaking out of bounds, and somewhat riotous conduct of about 120 cadets at Camberley Fair. This was inquired into, and a confession was followed by very lenient action on the part of Lord Roberts, who only “rusticated” two ring leaders and three corporals. On June 23rd leave was restored to enable the cadets to go to London for the Coronation. However, a fifth fire broke out on June 25th.
All ordinary methods having failed to discover the incendiary, the order was now made that unless the name of the criminal were given up within 48 hours, the whole of the cadets of C Company who could not prove that they were absent on the occasion of the last fire would be rusticated, and their servants dismissed. No one turned informer, and upon 29 cadets and three servants fell the full severity of the punishment.
Naturally the case has roused much feeling, and as cadets have influential friends the feeling has taken the very practical form of appearing in Parliament in the light of a grievance. It is usually considered better in civil law that ninety-nine guilty men should go free than that one innocent man should be hanged. In adopting the theory of general punishment the War Office adopt the opposite course and confess their own weakness. It is possible that in their excessively wide net the War Office have not got the real offender. It may be that they have not got more than one man, if one, who could “peach” if he would. The tone of Lord Roberts, however, leads one to believe that he has his own opinion upon that point – an opinion which dictated the sentence of wholesale rustication.
We know for certain that the cadets “broke out,” which does not look as though they were burning with zeal in the interests of the discipline of the place. We also know that their loose ways are the outcome of the loose ways of the authorities, and the report we have already quoted shows that the general looseness in the Army is caused by the feeling that under the present system of promotion it is no use trying to attain a tolerable state of professional perfection. Mr Broderick and Lord Roberts have promised to go into individual cases so that those cadets may not be wrongly disgraced, but the evil lies deeper than the Sandhurst fires, which have merely provided the light necessary to show up in greater relief a system that needs drastic overhauling.
Northwich Guardian, 16th July 1902.
The Sandhurst Fires.
Reported Confession.
A Camberley telegram says it was rumoured there last night that a cadet had made a confession with reference to the fires at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, but no official confirmation was obtainable.
Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 19th July 1902.
Fire Fiend.
Andrew Lang on Sandhurst Blazes.
He suggests exorcism.
Mr Andrew Lang, writing int he “Morning Post” on the Sandhurst mystery, asks if the fires may have been the work of some hysterical person. He goes on – Is it possible that there was an hysterical patient at Sandhurst, who acted with all the mysterious cunning of hysteria? We know, were it but from the records of witch trials, and physicians know in practise, how crafty is hysteria, how it swallows and disgorges pins and nails, and other unwholesome things ; how it produces odd knockings and escapades of moving furniture, and flights of stones and bricks. Now fire raising is the usual accompaniment of these manifestations. In 1695 some wonderful occurrences took place in the cottage of Andrew Mackie, in the parish of Rerrick. The parish minister, Mr Telfer, a witness of the event, described them in “A New Confutation of Sadducism” (London, 1696). It is a careful statement, each occurrence being attested by the signatures of lairds of honourable names and of pious ministers. “Large quantities of peat were brought into the house and set on fire, when all the family was asleep, and though they made a narrow search, could neither hear nor see any agent.” “On the 5th of April it set some bundles of straw, designed for thatch, on fire in the yard;” on April 6 it “threw fire balls in and about the house, but the fire vanished as it fell. It “threw likewise a hot stone into the bed between the children, which burned through the bedclothes.”
It is always the same story – “On April 7 it set the house twice on fire;” “on the 14th, being the Sabbath Day, the evil spirit set fire to some straw that wsa in the corn yard;” “on the 19th it set fire to the straw in the barn, where Andrew Mackie was threshing;” “on the 27th it set the house on fire seven times, and on the 28th which was the Sabbath Day, it continued setting fire to the house, from sunrise to sun-setting, and as it was quenched in one part, it was instantly set on fire in another.” This it did also on the 29th , when all fires had been put out, and “though there was no fire to be had within a quarter of a mile of the house.” On 9th May it set fire to a sheep cot, and that was the end of the whole affair, attested by five parish ministers and several lairds and farmers.
I could quote cases from China, and fire-raising was one of the phenomena at Grimsby in October last. Is it not then a most plausible hypothesis that either an hysterical person, or a medium, or “it” is at the bottom of the Sandhurst mystery? The hypothesis is provisional, and is advanced with diffidence. Still, exorcism might be tried, though it decidedly failed at Rerrick in 1695.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 19th July 1902.
The Sequel to the Sandhurst Fires.
Lord Roberts visited R.M.C. College, yesterday. He announced that on the result of the inquiry, 27 of the 29 cadets were exonerated. The seniors will go to the examination to London, and the others return to College.
Berkshire Chronicle, 26th July 1902.