HISTORICALEIGH - Samuel Bacon

September 7, 2015 by Carole Mulroney

Samuel Bacon, The Man Who Saved - Ratty and Toad For The Nation

On 24 November, 1903, a man called George Robinson arrived at the Bank of England and was directed to the Bank Secretary.

When the Secretary appeared, Robinson walked towards him, holding out a rolled up manuscript. It was tied at one end with a white ribbon and at the other, with a black one. He asked the Secretary to choose which end to take. With hesitation the Secretary chose the black ribboned end, whereupon Robinson pulled out a gun and fired three or four shots at the Secretary, all of them missed.

Several bank employees managed to wrestle Robinson to the ground, aided by the Fire Brigade who turned a hose on him. Strapped into a straitjacket, he was bundled away and subsequently committed to Broadmoor.

On duty at the Bank during the incident was Inspector Samuel Bacon and Detective Rigby and it was they who overpowered Robinson.

Sadly the incident caused Inspector Bacon severe heart strain and he soon after retired - to live in Leigh in Rectory Grove where he died 14 years later, much lamented by the local fishermen who sent a special wreath to his funeral.

The Bank Secretary who could have been killed in the incident was one Kenneth Grahame who very soon after retired from the Bank and started to write and to become one of our great literary talents - the author of Wind in the Willows