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n If it wasn’t for one incident, it would be unlikelynthat most of us would have even heard of Spencer Perceval. If I were to tellnyou that he held office between the 3rd Duke of Portland and the 2ndnEarl of Liverpool, you’d be right to guess that he was a British PrimenMinister, but if you said you can you name one thing that any one of thosenthree ever achieved, I’d say you were either a student of political history orna liar (which is not necessarily a mutually exclusive position). SpencernPerceval, however, is remembered as being the only British Prime Minister tonhave been assassinated, (and considering some of those who have held thatnposition, that’s something of a surprise in itself).
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| Spencer Perceval |
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nLate in the afternoon ofnMay 11th 1812, Perceval left Downing Street and walked downnParliament Street, on his way to the chamber of the House of Commons, wherendebates in Committee on the Orders in Council were taking place. At about anquarter past five, as he ascended the broad steps leading to the foldingnhalf-doors of the lobby, he noticed William Jerdan, an up-and-comingnparliamentary correspondent and, having a slight acquaintance, the pair smilednbriefly to each other. The young journalist held the door open, to allow thenPrime Minister to precede him into the Commons.
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| “As if the breath of a cigar” |
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nAs Perceval passed through thendoor, a tall, young man in a snuff-coloured suit approached him and Jerdannnoticed a curl of smoke, ‘as if the breath of a cigar’, wreath above thenpolitician’s head. A stunned Perceval reeled back momentarily against the ledgenof the door and Jerdan heard him gasp, “Oh, God”, or “Oh, my God”,nbefore he staggered forward, seeming almost to be dashing for the safety of thendoor on the other side of the lobby, but half way across it he dropped to thenfloor. A faint trace of blood issued from his mouth. Mr William Smith, MP fornNorwich, stepped forward and raised the stricken man up in his arms, it wasnonly then that he recognised him as the Prime Minister.
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| Perceval perishes |
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nHe was carried into thenadjoining office of the Speaker’s Secretary and laid upon a table. Back in thenlobby, there was pandemonium. One of the officers of the House called out, “Thatnis the murderer,” pointing to the man in the snuff-coloured suit who, withna small pistol still in his hand, slowly sank onto a bench near the fire-place,nwhere Jerdan walked up to him and took hold, without violence, of the collar ofnhis coat. Another officer cried, “Where is the rascal that fired?” tonwhich the man quietly answered, “I am the unfortunate man.”
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| William Jerdan |
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nGeneralnGascoigne seized him so strongly that he said later that he feared his arm wasnbeing broken; other members and bystanders searched his pockets and found ansecond pistol, an opera glass and some papers. Meanwhile, in the Secretary’snoffice, an unconscious Perceval was still laid on the table. A doctor had beennsent for, but it was in vain, as he was already dead. The bullet, fired atnheight by a tall man and entering at an angle, had pierced the chest andnentered the heart. Some one came out into the lobby and said directly to the assassin,n“Mr Perceval is dead. Villain, how could you destroy so good a man, and makena family of twelve children orphans?” “I am sorry for it,” came thenalmost mournful reply.
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| William Jerdan – Autobiography – 1825 |
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nJerdan, writing in his autobiography later, describesnthe man as physically strong but shaking almost uncontrollably, speaking coollynand quietly, yet sweating so profusely that it ran down his face and drippednonto his clothing. It seemed that he was almost choking and he struck himselfnin the chest several times, as if trying to dislodge something that was risingninto his gorge. When he spoke, he was incoherent, and seemed to be sayingnsomething about injustices that he had suffered.
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nThe doors were locked andnbolted and a search for accomplices was undertaken but no one else was discovered.nThe man, it seemed, had been acting alone. He was taken to the bar of thenHouse, where a Middlesex magistrate committed him to be held in the prison roomnof the Serjeant at Arms, and then to be taken to Newgate, secretly taken outnthrough the Speaker’s entrance and under guard by a company of Life Guards. Anwatch was placed on him, to prevent any attempt at suicide. Jerdan had been sonclose to Perceval that had the pistol ball passed through the body it wouldnhave entered his own yet, he wrote he did not hear the sound of a shot.
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| Spencer Perceval |
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nIn thenCommons and the Lords, however, the report was heard resounding through bothnHouses, and members from both ran out, to discover that the Prime Minister hadndied within ten minutes of being shot. The body was taken, first, to thenSpeaker’s House and then, later on the morning of the following day, to Numbern10, Downing Street. He left a wife and twelve children, aged between three andntwenty, and had just over one hundred pounds in his bank account. Parliamentnvoted to settle £50,000 on the children, with additional annuities for thenwidow and the eldest son. At the family’s request, he was buried in a privatenservice. A memorial was placed in Westminster Abbey, at a cost of £5,250.
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| Perceval’s memorial |
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nInmake no comment on the current situation of the recent passing of former PrimenMinister, her public funeral and a proposed memorial. No, no comment at all.
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nTomorrow – who shot him and why.
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