Impression of 'Woman
Attacks Captain' by Jamie
On the Friday
evening of 5 March 1915,
Captain E. Brown
Poole of the 3rd
Dorset Regiment,
was walking
Along the Queens
Road, Bayswater.
Stationed near
Weymouth at Wyke
Reis, Captain
Poole had returned back
Home on sick
leave, from injuries
Sustained in
action on the front line, now
Lodging at Junior
Army and Navy Club.
Violet Dean, a
slight young woman
Of independent
means, from 10 Princes
Square Bayswater,
was walking
Along the Queens
Road, Bayswater.
The situation was
that Violet Dean
Was making her
way in the early
Evening in an
opposite direction,
Towards a
uniformed Captain Poole
With visibly
injured, bandaged arm.
In a
juxtaposition of passing each
Other the Captain
felt a hard, sudden
Blow to his
shoulder - then he turned
And the young
woman struck him
Three more times
with her umbrella.
Holding up his
injured arm for self-
Protection,
Captain Poole asked
Why she was
hitting him - she gritted
Her teeth, 'The
British Army!' She claimed
How she had been
insulted by several
Of his men, as a
crowd collected about.
Looking on the stranger,
Captain Poole
And the woman
stood in the ring of people,
When a Police
Constable Attwooll 86 O
Arrived, taking
the woman to custody.
On Saturday, the
following day, the event
Was discussed at
the Police Court
Marylebone. After
the Captain described
What had
happened, the accused stood.
PC Attwoll had
asked ms Dean the reason
For her attack -
she clung to her unbrella,
Of which the
handle was broken -
Her angry reply
'I have been insulted by
Men like this.'
Violet Dean made no
Show of remorse -
her reason for her rage
Was that she had
been insulted.
To the
Magistrates question of 'who had
Done so - miss
Dean said 'by men in
Uniform’ - she
had nothing else to say
In reply to the
magistrate, as the solicitor,
Mr Hill appealed
to Mr Taylor's sentence.
The woman’s
reason was extraordinary
And there was no
other explanation, only
To add, she did
not recognise consequences
Of actions - but
deeply regretted her position,
Having no malice
or grudge against him.
The parties were
unknown to each other,
And Mr Taylor
replied how an army officer,
Just walking out,
found his uniform insulted -
Subjected to
indignity, in a public street.
That no appeal
could be made in matter, but
To give month's
prison sentence in 2nd division.
Violet Dean detained
in a penal house for
2nd division -
this being a class of prisoner,
Kept apart from
other classes - whereby
A woman is
subjected to confinement,
To eat prison
food and wear distinctive prison
Dress - Then
given after 5 p.m. library books
On secular subjects
of instruction and piety.
With one hour out
of 24, prisoners had 30
Minute exercise
and 30 minutes for chapel
Devotion - Violet
Dean would be given
Daytime Tasks -
darning or making postbags,
Or even hard
labour of washing or scrubbing.
A process devised
for respectable ladies
As had been the
case in detained suffergettes.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915.
Army Captain Attacked - Woman sent to prison. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 Mar. P.3. Col.3. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11019837/Daily-Telegraph-February
-1-1915.html [Accessed: 9 March 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 9 March 2015).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1London
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