TWO HOURS’ PITCHED BATTLE IN DARTMOOR PRISON

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19092, 26 January 1932, Page 7

TWO HOURS’ PITCHED BATTLE IN DARTMOOR PRISON

DESPERATE PRISONERS FIGHT WARDERS * AND FIRE PRISON HAND TO HAND FIGHTING RESEMBLES REAL WARFARE. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 24. As the result of a. violent outbreak at Dartmoor Prison, Princetown, following a fortnight’s unrest culminating in serious mutinous scenes, from sixty to seventy convicts and a dozen warders are in the gaol hospital suffering from injuries. It is believed that none was killed. A savage struggle between 300 or 400 convicts and the full staff of armed warders reinforced by hundreds of policemen from the surrounding districts raged for two hours. A prisoner attempted to escape on January 19, and prisoners attacked and injured two warders on January 23. All yesterday and last night rumours prevailed that a demonstration would be attempted, consequently the warders’ week-end leave was stopped. The prison resounded with shouting at six in the morning, the usual rising hour. The convicts yelled and hammered on the doors and created pandemonium. They threw porridge over the warders who took the breakfasts to the cells.

FIERCE ATTACKS ON WARDERS. PRISON QUARTERS ABLAZE. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 24. A desperate struggle began when the prisoners paraded for church at 9 o’clock In the morning, the convicts hurling themselves on the warders. A group dashed to the Governor’s office in the centre of the prison, i snatched embers of coal from the fire and Ignited the building. The flames were visible for miles. The noise of rifle fire, following Saturday night’s sleepless apprehension, deepened the alarm of Princetown residents. The Governor telephoned to the Chief Constables at Exeter and Plymouth, whence police were rushed in motor cars. Bids for Liberty. A fire engine was despatched, and 100 soldiers at the barracks paraded in service kit and steel helmets, awaiting orders to rush to Princetown. Meanwhile the convicts attempted to escape in all directions. Warders, armed with rifles, prevented 100 scaling the boundary wall. The firemen controlled the flames by 1 o clock, and ambulance men attended the casualties. Their injuries were chiefly received in the police charge, or from bullet wounds. The fire damaged the clock tower, and the offices of the central block and destroyed the records, preventing ascertaining if, as believed, two convicts escaped. The inmates of the prison numbered 480 and the warders 150. Precautions believed to be adequate had been taken to maintain discipline, but it was not anticipated that the mutineers would show such resource. Rioters Attack Governor. Nearly every resident of Princetown has enrolled as a special constable, armed with a rifle. Fifty Plymouth constables patrolled 15 miles of Dartmoor. It has been found that the convicts had deprived the warders of their keys. They smashed every window, and broke into the offices and stores, compelling the Governor to run for his life to the block in which the inmates remained loyal. The rioters were defying the warders to attack them as the reinforcements arrived. The warders were covering a howling mob with rifles when a police' officer ordered a baton charge, which culminated in a pitched battle. Heavy Casualty List Before the outbreak was quelled 70 convicts lay unconscious on the pavement. The police and warders hustled the remainder to the cells. Some surrendered, but over 100 fought desperately until overpowered. Even an omnibus driver who brought reinforcements, was given a rifle and told to fire at any convict mounting the walls. Mr Alexander Mawell, chairman of the Prison Commissioners, declined to make a statement for publication. The police, however, officially announced that the trouble had been foreseen, and the Governor of the prison had arranged for the necessary assistance. Fierce Hand to Hand Fighting. An eye-witness declares that the j police arrived in the nick of time to prevent 300 desperate convicts escaping and terrorising the countryside. “I have never seen more ghastly hand to hand fighting even during the war. The whole yard was blood spattered.” A convict saved a warder’s life by shutting him in an empty stokehold and defending him with a shovel against three assailants. It is officially announced that no convicts escaped. None was killed. The convicts had complained of the food, but the cause of the outbreak cannot be stated. Raising the Alarm. The alarm was first communicated to the Princetown residents by a warder, whose nose was broken in the first scuffle. He rushed outside the prison gates, blood streaming down his

face. Old women, waiting outside, alarmed by the noise, returned to their homes and locked themselves in. Many farmers were advised by telephone of the possibility of convicts’ raids. “Let’s Get the Governor.” The Rev. Scholes (prison chaplain) was also attacked, the convicts taking his keys and releasing others, who joined their comrades, shouting, “Set fire to the prison; let’s get the Governor.” Governor Roberts vainly tried to reason with the mutineers, and eventually found refuge in a cell. The convicts also assaulted the prison fcommissioner (Colonel Turner) whom a loyal convict, who is serving a life sentence, freed and locked safely in a cell. The police officers admitted that it was one of the most critical situations they had ever faced. Dartmoor’s Grim History. Dartmoor prison is a granite stronghold in a bleak situation 300 ft. above sea level, on the Devonshire moors, which are threaded by streams and morasses often shrouded in fogs, and there are few roads, making escape difficult. It was built in 1809, to house the Napoleonic prisoners of war, and was the scene, in 1815, of the shooting of seven American prisoners of war, after the war in 1812. The only instance paralleling the present outbreak, was the fatal mutiny in 1880, when a quarry gang attacked the warder and the ringleader was fatally shot and others recaptured. “ Get at ’em Boys.” While the Plymouth police marched in, they found the convicts armed with table legs, axe handles, stockings filled with nails, brick bats and perched on the roofs of sheds. Chief Constable Wilson tried to parley, and was greted with a,shower of brickbats. He turned and said; “Get at ’em, boys. It's no good talking.” The police, armed with truncheons rushed the walls and roofs and dragged the convicts off. It was a case of hitting hard and quickly. In ten minutes the convicts thereabouts had disappeared. Thereafter there was not much diiffculty in rounding them all up, and placing them under lock and key. PRECAUTIONS AGAINST FURTHER TROUBLE. PRISONER SAVES LIFE OF COMMISSIONER. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received January 26, 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, January 25. One hundred extra police remained in the vicinity of Dartmoor all night long. Many warders went about their duties, swathed in bandages. The courtyard was floodlit and armed guards patrolled the prison. Two machine gun squads, ordered to Dartmoor at the height of the riot, were not required. It is revealed that a prisoner Donovan serving a life sentence, saved the life of Commissioner Turner, who was visiting the prison to inquire into the grievances/ Donovan rushed between Turner and a band of convicts armed with crowbars. It looked as if the pair would be killed, but Donovan faced them out and displayed the greatest pluck, and turned the attack. Donovan with two others was convicted of murder in 1928 and reprieved an hour before his execution. He is now a changed man and says if ever he has the luck to come out of prison, he is going to show the people that there is an unseen