STEALER OF BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 13, 16 July 1934, Page 11

STEALER OF BOOKS

A BRILLIANT "STUDENT

NOT DONE FOR MONEY SAKE

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, Juno 12. '

George David Anderson, aged 20, a milkman's son, who won his way to Cambridge University by brilliant scholarship and other distinction, has been bound over for stealing books. Anderson pleaded' guilty to eight charges of stealing books at Cambridge and asked that two other charges of stealing books at King's Lynn should also bo taken into consideration.

It was stated that 508 books of the value of about £.70 had been stolen, mostly from bookshops, but also from Cambridge University Library, Cambridge Borough Library, King's Lynn Borough Library, and King Edward VII Grammar School, King's Lynn, the thefts covering a period from 1929 to May of this year.- ■

Mr. Norman Birkett, K.C., described the case as most remarkable. He asked the Bench to take a. certain course ia order that this brilliant lad should not have his life entirely ruined. Grievous as the offences were, they had been confined to books, and there had been no attempt to stgal in order to get money. Tho first books stolen were designed to assist Anderson's study, but later on, "just'for the mere acquisition of books."

Anderson's father, Mr. Birkott continued, was a milkman, with n milk round at King's Lynn. For over twenty years this boy's parents had gone without holidays, and denied themselves right and left, : in.-order 'that this boy should have jthe education his unusual qualities deSeWed>til)£^s'.to his credit that when an undergraduate at Cambridge the'flrst thing he did on going home- on: vacations- was -to take milk round to customers so that his brothers and sisters could- have a holiday.

WINNER OOF THE KING'S' MEDAL,

In 1925 he went to King's Lynn Grammar School with a Norfolk Jmiiov Scholarship, and in 1929 took the senior Cambridge certificate and gained a Norfolk Senior,,, Scholarship. He went to Cambridge iii 193.1. He. won the King's Gold. Medal at King's .Lynn. Grammar School; and was presented to the King at Saiidringham.

"It must have been -an awful moment for.that boy knowing, when the King pinned the gold medal on his breast, that he had .already started stealing books,?' Mr. Birkett remarked.

At school Anderson took full part in all school activities,, both athletic and academic, and .was awarded the Lenneusian Prize, which was bestowed by the votes of other scholars to the boy with the most outstanding-record. ,

Going up. to Emmanuel College in 1931, he took first-class in part one of the Modern Languages Tripos, and sat for part two on the day after his arrest.

"What the state of his mind, was then I cannot imagine," said v.Mr. Birkett., He had gone without food to buy books, as well as obtaining them in this illicit manner.

. The college were willing to have him back if the Bench took a certain course.

All the books had been restored to their owjiers, who had suffered no loss, and as regards university libraryfbooks that had been.mutilated, friends would sec that they were put right and all cost's defrayed. ■

The Mayor, Councillor Spalding, said tho Bench had decided to bind Anderson over for two years. There would be certain conditions, .to be docifled after further, consultation with counsel.