Army Officers Charged

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6809, 12 January 1929, Page 13

Army Officers Charged

“RAG” ON JOURNALIST Sequel to Polo Ball rLEE Army officers—Captain William Richardson Bailey, Captain A. W. M. S. Pilkington (16th Lancers), and Captain George Fanshawe (Queen’s Bays)—were defendants at Dunstar Police Court (England), recently, in summonses arising out of an incident during a polo ball, at Minehead. on September 5, when, it was alleged, a young “freelance” journalist, Mr. Edward Alexander Hemingway, was ducked in the sea. The case, which caused considerable sensation in the West Country, particularly in hunting and polo circles, drew people from far and near into the quiet little village of Dunstar.

Both Captain Pilkington and Captain Fanshawe were prominent players in the summer tournament of the West Somerset Polo Club, at the close of which the fancy dress ball was held. Captain Bailey, who is one of the official polo umpires at Hurlingham, was umpire at the tournament. Mr. Templeman, for the prosecution, said that Mr. Hemingway went for a newspaper to obtain particulars of a fancy dress ball at the Hotel Metropole. He was conducted to a balcony overlooking the ba’lroom, and saw 200 ladies and gentlemen dancing. About forty were in fancy dress, continued Mr. Templeman. Mr. Hemingway began making notes, was given some names, and wrote down the costumes of, among others, Captain Bailey, Captain Pilkington, and Caplain Fanshawe, whom he saw dancing.

He left to telephone his report, and as he got to the hotel staff quarters saw Fanshawe looking through the glass door and pointing at him with his finger. Pilkington was at his side, and there was a doctor behind him. Either Pilklington or Fanshawe said: “Is that him?” and the doctor replied, “Yes.” "Come Along With Us” Mr. Templeman continued: Immediately Fanshawe, who was dressed in women’s clothes with a Dutch woman’s hat, burst through the doorway into the kitchen, accompanied by Pilkington. They got hold of Hemingway. Their only remark was, “Who are You? What are you doing?” Hemingway said it was not their business and they ought to go back into the proper part of the hotel. Pilkington said, “Y T ou are the man who writes about stag hunting. Come along with us.” That was the only remark made by any of them about stag hunting,

Not a, Huge Joke “They caught hold of Hemingway, who was dragged into the hotel vestibule and flung on to the ground,” said Mr. Templeman. “Two other men, one dressed as a sort of Aunt Sally, caihe up ” At this point £lr. Hemingway, turning to the back of the court, exclaimed: “They seem to think it is a huge joke. I can assure them it is not.” Mr. Templeman, resuming, said Bailey was dressed as a cowboy. Bailey was blowing a hunting-horn, and others were crying, “Here he is—we’ve got him!” Some forty or fifty people kicking up a noise followed as Hemingway was rushed out of the hotel. Hemingway shouted to the porter to call the manager. The. manager rushed toward the pier, but was kept back. He asked someone to phone for the police. Hemingway was frog-marched, his head banged against the door, and he was bumped down the steps and across the promenade until they reached the seawall. Cads and Cowards He shouted for the police and, realising they were about to throw him into the sea, he called them "Blackguards, cads, cowards, and no sportsmen.” ■ .... They put him down on the seawall, where he could see the rocks below and the waves washing them. .Either Pilkington or Fanshawe--said, “Let’s drown him here.” •• Someone said, “You .swine; ..; you would do it, would you?” And -'they moved to the sandy part of the beach, as the rocks would have injured him. He was then thrown into the water.. When the three officers returned to . the hotel, Captain Pilkington and Caplain Fanshawe went in the kitchen. 1

"Pilkington,” said Mr. Templeman,; "snatched a dish of eggs and bacon, from, a waiter, but dropped it saying it was hot. A waiter told him not to interfere, and then one of the two officers struck the waiter. Later, in the dining room, Mr, Templeman alleged, one of the three; officers wanted to fight the waiter. There was a challenge to fight eight waiters, and two of the waiters went off to fetch six others, but the fight did not come off. Giving evidence, Mr. Hemingway* describing to the court, the costumes worn by the three officers at the ball, said regarding Captain Pilkington:]* “The manager called him a coquette. I called him Aunt Sally. He had a! pink shirt and wore light fawn stockings like that one” (holding up to the magistrate a fawn silk stocking he took out of his pocket). As Mr. Norman Birkett was rising to make a submission on a point of evidence, Mr. Hemingway turned to him and said, “Sit down!” Mr. Birkett (indignantly): I must protest. This is the second time thi3 man has told me to sit down. I took no notice the first time, but this is the second time he has tried to prevent me doing my duty by the three defendants. The Chairman (to Mr. Hemingway) Don’t do that again. A few minutes later Mr. Hemingway was asked by his solicitor to identify a blue reefer coat handed from the back of the court by Miss Hemingway, his sister, as the one he wore on the -night of the incident. He identified the coat as it remained in Mr. Templeman’s hands, but when Mr. Birkett asked him to take hold of the coat he refused, and when Mr. Birkett called the attention of the bench to this, Mr. Hemingway said, “I am not forced ;tg take it.” 1 Tlie hearing was adjourned.