BIG BEN
In reply to C. H. Wilson’s inquiry in youi’ issue of September 3, Chambers’s “Book of Days” records that one John Hatfield died at his house, Glasshouse Yard, Aldersgate, on June 18, 1770, at the age of 102. His obituary notice recorded that when Hatfield was a soldier in the days of William and Mary, he was tried by court-martial on a charge of having slept when on duty at Windsor. He advanced the fact of his noting St. Paul’s clock strike 13 at midnight as proof that he had not slept at his post. The court disbelieved his story, stating that the distance was too far for the sound to have carried. Hatfield was sentenced to death, but laterpardoned upon the affidavit of several persons that the clock at St. Paul’s actually did strike 13 instead of 12 on the night in question. R. A. DOUGLAS. Invercargill, September 3.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 4
Word Count
152BIG BEN Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 4
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