Duelling Schoolboys May 7, 2014
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
Duelling is really all about grown men acting like complete asses. However, at least in one case in 1874 it appears that early teens in Lincolnshire, the UK emulated their elders. One Gerald Maurice Burn shot, 7 March 1874, at George Seagrave, both boarders at a local school run by a reverend no less. Burn got his bullet into Seagrave’s right leg above the ankle. ‘Several pieces of bone, a portion of the trousers, and a portion of the bullet, which had split on the bone, were found deep in the leg. The remainder of the bullet could not be found, and has probably altered its course, and run down to the back of the ankle joint.’ We forget just how difficult it was to treat simple injuries like this in the nineteenth century without penicilin etc. Here is some background from the court case from William, the injured boy’s brother. What a school!
I saw Burn cast the bullets. It was more than a week before the duel occurred, and he cast them in the schoolroom. [wth!!] I don’t, know where he got the mould from, and I have seen him casting bullets on more than one occasion. He used to practise firing with a pistol at a post in the schoolyard, and the bullets used to make indents in the wood. I cannot say what kind of wood the post was made of. My brother and Burn quarrelled about a carricature which the latter had sketched. Burn said it would be best to settle all quarrels honourably, and offered to fight a duel with my brother, who is 12 years old. I said I would not agree to it, and he therefore declined to fight. Burn said nothing further, but a week after again challenged him, saying that he would give, him another chance for his honour. He accepted, and the duel was to be fought with pistols, which were bought at a toy shop for 6d. They were loaded with powder and ball. I told Burn that if they happened to hit each other it would be serious, but he said he did not mind.
There had previously been another duel which had almost ended badly with a bullet grazing the skin over the contestant’s thumb.
We stood thirteen paces apart. I called Dawson names, and he challenged me to fight a duel. We fought the duel near to the Tillage of Washingbrough, and there were only three present. When Dawson challenged I said I would fight him, and no one incited me to do so.
The fight in which Seagrave got hurt came about because of a ‘caricature’, presumably a rude picture. Twelve years old…
Any other duelling schoolboys: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
