QUEEN VICTORIA 1819-1901
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT AT WINDSOR STATION ON 2 MARCH 1882
Queen Victoria had returned from London on the train to Windsor station where she transferred to a carriage
to continue on to the Castle. A large cheering crowd of on-lookers had gathered including a group of boys
from Eton school. “There was a sound of what I thought was an explosion from the engine, but in another
moment, I saw people rushing about and a man being violently hustled, rushing down the street” the Queen
later wrote. It was the sound of a gunshot from a pistol she’d heard, triggered by a culprit “who was very
miserably clad”. Two of the Eton Scholars Gordon Wilson and Leslie Murray Robertson/Robinson, ‘brave,
stalwart boys’ had tackled the would-be assassin Roderick Maclean. Wilson struck Maclean’s weapon with
his umbrella while Murray Robertson wrestled him, undoubtedly preventing a second shot, and saving the
Queen’s life. According to one press account the pistol was not “heavily loaded, and did not take effect.”
Maclean was apprehended by Slough’s loco department foreman John Frost who had accompanied the
Royal train.
30 year old Maclean was the last of seven men who’d made attempts on the Queen’s life. He’d left a written
statement that morning to say he had no intention of causing Her Majesty any injury, just to cause alarm
and draw attention to his ‘pecuniary straits’. Witness statements proved the revolver was bought from a
pawnbroker for 5s. 9d. in Portsmouth. His father had had him examined some years before to ascertain if
he was of sound mind and had been confined in a Weston-super-Mare asylum for 12 months suffering from
insane delusions, with homicidal mania. He was found not guilty of High Treason on grounds of insanity,
and spent the rest of his life in asylums.
The public outpouring of support lead to Queen Victoria writing to her daughter Vicky saying: ‘It is worth
being shot at, to see how much one is loved.’
