Jack Binns, Hero

28/01/1909

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On this day, the American House of Representatives suspended business while Congressman Boutelle declared that 'everyone who has read of the collision between the Republic and the Florida must feel there was one silent actor in the tragedy whose name should be immortalised, the Marconi Operator on the Republic, Mr John R. Binns'. John Binns (who was also known as Jack) went to St Mark's school in Gladstone Street, and the Boys National School (both in Peterborough) before starting work in aged 15 in the Great Eastern Station telegraph office. In 1901, he began work as senior operator in the Colchester telegraph office. Over the next eight years he built up a reputation of outstanding excellence while treating himself how to fix broken lines, apparatus, and connections and completing a Marconi three-month Telegraphy & Shorthand course in just five weeks. in January 1909, as chief telegraph operator on the RMS Republic, he set sail from New York with passengers seeking Mediterranean warmth instead of a cold American winter. In thick fog on 24 January, the steamship Florida rammed the Republic. For the next eleven hours, Jack used all his skills to improvise repairs to his damaged tranmitter and seek help. All passengers were saved. (jackbinns.org; Peterborough Local History Society Magazine Millennium Edition)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Richard Howland Becomes Bishop

16/05/1584

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Richard Howland finally fulfilled his ambition of becoming a Bishop when he was appointed bishop of Peterborough. However, he soon discovered how poverty-stricken the diocese was, thanks to the acts of his predecessor Bishop Scrambler. He had sold large tracts of the cathedral's estates and all its judicial rights to Queen Elizabeth, pleading the cause of his diocese and in particular trying to ease the excessive tax liability it carried for furnishing light horses for the army. Scrambler was chaplain to William Cecil, Lord Burghley - the man to whom the Queen had given virtually everything she had received from Scrambler! As bishop, Howland took first place at the funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was committed to her burial place without any service although, it is claimed, he was prepared to take one. Howland had aimed higher than Peterborough so, on the death of its archbishop in 1594, Howland was strongly recommended for the see of York by the lord president Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, as well as many others. The post, unfortunately, went to another. Howland died unmarried at Castor, near Peterborough, on 23 June 1600, and was buried in his cathedral without any memorial or epitaph. (Carnell, Geoffrey, The Bishops of Peterborough, RJL Smith & Associates, 1993) Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.