AN OFFICER’S DOWNFALL.

Evening Star, Issue 14053, 7 May 1909, Page 2

AN OFFICER’S DOWNFALL.

A painful case came before the Walsall Borough Bench recently, when Captain John Schnadel Robinson, the son of a well-known townsman, was charged at the instance of the War Office with; stealing £495. According to the evidence, he was temporarily installed as acting adjutant of the sth Battalion South Staffordshire Territorial Regiment, and In that capacity received a draft for £69s,'this being the Battalion messing allowance for camp and the sergeant instructor’s pay. Ee did not pay the money over to Colonel Williamson, as was his duty, and when applied to pretended that there had been a clerical error in the draft, which had entailed delay. Finally, being pressed, he admitted having parted with the greater part of the money in gambling and to money lenders. Mr Jackson, for the defence, said that there were circumstances of a tragic nature connected with the case. The defendant bad had brilliant prospects before him. He was a young man of thirty-two, had served in the Volunteers for ten years, and when the Boer War broke out volunteered for active service. He went to South Africa, and was there placed in command of the second active service company, and did excellent work, eliciting appreciative testimonials from General Arundel and others. On returning home, Captain Robinson and his company were entertained at a public banquet in Walsall, and he was presented with a silver sword and other mementoes. Unfortunately, his father, by whom he had been employed, met recently with commercial disaster, and the defendant was thrown out on his beam-ends. The accused was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment in the second division.