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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Prosecution of a French Strumpet

1844

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In December 1843 Nathalie Miard was charged with demanding money with menace from the Rev. Herbert Charles Marsh, vicar of Barnack and prebend of Peterborough Cathedral. He had been in a relationship with Nathalie Miard in 1839 in London, and she had become pregnant. Over the next few years he paid her large sums of money, even after the child had died, and she threatened to destroy his reputation if he did not continue to pay her. The extent of their interactions and those of two other French prostitutes, were revealed in scandalous detail in local and national press, revealing every sum of money paid, every hotel they visited, and letters written by her. The news story was in all of the British newspapers and was a national discussion point.

Rev Marsh first visited Nathalie Miard in London where she was said to have been an actress. He gave her money to allow her to return to Paris and visited her there shortly afterwards. Their interactions continued over the next few years, meeting together in London and Paris, each time Ms Miard demanding increasingly large sums of money. In April 1843 she arrived in Stamford, attempting to extract more money from him, with the threat that she would go door to door to expose him to all of his parishioners and then work her way through the local and national clergy until she had informed the Archbishop of Canterbury. She stayed for some time in Barnack, appearing at church services to cause as much disruption as possible, attempting to extort 10,000 francs (£400 at the time) from his brother to start a gambling house. She also talked to his mother, wife of the late Bishop of Peterborough, George Davys, the resident Bishop, and also the Dean. In December of 1843 a prosecution was made against Ms Miard on three different charges of sending a letter demanding money, another similar offence and conspiracy to extort money with another woman.

Witnesses gave examples of how Ms Miard had lied about a second pregnancy and about Rev Marsh giving her drugs to induce a miscarriage in an attempt to increase the scandal, and she had previously extorted money from a Spanish man using the same technique she was using on Rev Marsh. Yet despite the evidence, the jury of 12 men found her not guilty, possibly as a result of nine of the jurors being Dissenters. She was freed from jail on the understanding she would not harass Mr Marsh any further and would return to Paris.

In 1848 Rev. Marsh married a Belgian woman named Elise Sidonie Pouceau and was shortly after admitted to a mental institute in Belgium, then Paris and eventually England. His brother George Marsh was successfully able to get him declared insane on 12th June 1850.

Rev. Herbert Charles Marsh , Barnack , Nathalie Miard , George Davys , George Marsh , Strumpet

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Jack Binns, Hero

28/01/1909

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Prosecution of a French Strumpet

1844

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