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| Robert Pate striking the Queen outside Cambridge House |
Robert came from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire where his father was a corn dealer and a highly respected member of the community, becoming High Sheriff for the county in 1847. In 1841 his father bought Robert a commission in the 10th Hussars, a well-respected regiment filled with the sons of aristocracy, where he became a lieutenant and completed a tour of duty in Ireland. After his horse and dog were put down after contracting rabies, he began to show signs of lunacy, and not long after he resigned his commission to become a recluse in London.
At his trial, the defence team did not claim insanity, fearing that this would lock him away for the rest of his life, but instead asked for a lenient sentence on the grounds of a momentary lapse caused by a weak mind. He was sentenced to transportation for a period of seven years.
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| Mess room at Cascades station where Robert spent his punishment probation period |
His class ensured that he received special treatment in prison and on the journey out to Van Dieman's Land, but on arrival he was consigned to a labour camp just like a common criminal. He served less than a year under what for him must have been an especially hard regime, and was then transferred to more amenable work in the community. In 1857 he married a rich heiress and lived in Hobart for eight years before selling up and returning to London. Robert Pate died in 1895 and is buried in Beckenham Cemetery.
The 11,000-word chapter in the book on this attack provides much greater detail on Robert's upbringing and strange behaviour, the attack itself and his subsequent trial and imprisonment, as well as his later life.
Hobart Town
Directory, Archives Office of Tasmania ,
1859
Stanley Weintraub, Victoria: Biography of a Queen, Unwin Hyman, London , 1987
Sources used in the full account in the book
Valentine Bolam, Wisbech
Desperado, Wisbech Society 59th Annual Report p7, 1998
Valentine Bolam, Robert
Pate – Neither Drunk nor Mad, Wisbech Society 60th Annual Report
p9, 1998
Valentine Bolam, Research
Archive and Personal Communication, 2010
Michael Brander, The
10th Royal Hussars, Leo Cooper, London ,
1969
Frederic John Gardiner, A
History of Wisbech and Neighbourhood During the Last Fifty Years, Gardiner
& Co., London ,
1898
Robert
Hughes, The Fatal Shore: A History of Transportation of Convicts to Australia , 1787-1868, Vintage, London , 1987
A History of the
County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely volume 4, Victorian County History,
2002
Alumni Oxonienses
Assessment &
Valuation Rolls for Hobart , Archives Office
of Tasmania ,
1847-1867
Chancery Affidavit of
Mary Elizabeth Pate, The National Archives C31/2044, 14 February 1866
Chancery Cause Book
for Case S264, The National Archives C32/304, 1856
Chancery Court Orders
and Decrees for Startin v Peckover S264, The National Archives C33 and J15
series, 1856-78
Chancery Pleadings for
Startin v Peckover, The National Archives C15/339/S264, 1856
Convict Conduct
Register, Archives Office of Tasmania
CON33/1/98
Convict Transportation
Registers Database, State Library of Queensland
Description List of
Male Convicts, Archives Office of Tasmania
CON18/1/52
Diary of John
Campbell, Surgeon on the William Jardine, National Library of Australia
AJCP M385, 1850
Idents of Male
Convicts, Archives Office of Tasmania ,
CON14/1/42
Kelly’s Directory for
Cambridgeshire, 1847
Land Tax Assessment
for the Hundred of Wisbech, Cambridgeshire Archives 283/09, 1798-1803
Lloyd’s Register of
Shipping, 1850
Millbank Prison
Register, The National Archives, HO24/5, 1850
Notebooks of Mr
Justice Talfourd, Bershire Record Office, D/EX 1410/1/3/2
Pigot’s Directory for
Cambridgeshire, 1823-40
Petitions to the Queen
and the Home Office on behalf of Robert Pate and John Francis, The National
Archives, HO45/3079
Poll Book for Wisbech,
Wisbech and Fenland
Museum
Probate Calendars, Probate
Registry, 1865-1900
Regimental Service
Record for Robert Pate, The National Archives WO76/540, 1841-46
Request for
Information on Robert Pate, The National Archives HO45/9750/A58430, 1896
Slater’s Directory for
Cambridgeshire, 1850
The Army List,
1842-56
The Bury and Norfolk
The Cambridge
The Colonial Times,
Hobart , 1833-56
The Courier,
Hobart, 1835-65
The Launceston
Examiner, Launceston , Tasmania
The Mercury, Hobart , Tasmania
The Norwich
The Will of Mary Ann
Pate, The National Archives PROB 11/2207, 1852
The Will of Robert
Francis Pate, The National Archives PROB 11/2240, 1856
The Zoist, vol. 8
p303, 1850
Wills and Probate for
Robert Pate and Mary Elizabeth Pate, Probate Registry, 1895 and 1901
Sources used in this and other chapters
Arthur Christopher Benson and Viscount Esher (eds), The Letters of Queen Victoria, John Murray, London , 1908
George Earle Buckle (ed.), The Letters of Queen Victoria
Christopher Hibbert, Queen Victoria : A Personal History, Harper Collins, London , 2000
James, D.; Kerrigan, T.; Forfar, R.; Farnham, F.; Preston , L., The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre: Preventing Harm and Facilitating Care, Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology 21 (4): 1, 2010
Norman Lowe, Mastering Modern British History, Third Edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke , 1998
Helen Rappaport, Queen Victoria : A Biographical Companion, ABC-CLIO, Oxford , 2001
Lee Jackson, www.victorianlondon.org
Dr Kurt Jagow (ed.), Letters of the Prince Consort 1831-1861, J. Murray, London , 1938
Lytton Strachey, Queen Victoria, Chatto and Windus, 1921
Censuses of England
London and National Newspapers, especially The Era, The Morning Chronicle, The Morning Post, The Observer, The Standard and The Times
The General Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, General Register Office
The International Genealogical Index, www.familysearch.org
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, www.oldbaileyonline.org
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