CAUSED A SENSATION

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20247, 16 July 1937, Page 10

CAUSED A SENSATION

BUT NOW FORGOTTEN. Q. A. IVteMAHON'S PLANS. I I A RELIGIOUS EXILE. (Times Air Mail Service.) LONDON, June 13. A forgotten man sits in Wandsworth prison planning for himself a future —in religion. He is George Andrew McMahon, club-foot, sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour “for producing a revolver near the person of King Kdward VIII with intent to alarm His Majesty.” McMahon’s arrest on Constitution Hill July, when, he produced a revolver as King Edward rode by at the head of his Guards, was a world sensation. Last week I became his first prison visitor, with the exception of his wife. I stayed half an hour. During the whole time a warder sat between us. Fit And WelL McMahon looked fit and well, but told me that he was feeling weak and shaken after a visit to the dentist in the prison hospital. But his eyes lit up as he talked of the future. “I teve had an invitation to enter a religious community in France,” he said. “As soon as I am released I shall accept it. “I have only two months of my sentence left to serve, and when I am free I intend to leave this country for ever. “Many influential people have offered me help. One of them is a millionaire. “But I must refuse all the offers that kind friends have put forward.

“I do not want charity. I have money. My only desire is to go away and forget this awful thing that has happened. “In the quiet, religious atmosphere of my exile I shall be able to forget.”' Everybody Kind. Tears rolled down his cheeks. For a moment he buried his head in his hands. “Everybody has been kind and considerate,” he murmured. “Even the Duke, as he is now, bore me no grudge.” Then the warder touched me on the arm. My time was up. I shook hands with McMahon. From the prison gates I saw his pathetic figure limping away to join a band of prisoners at exercise.

REVOLVER INCIDENT. THE EMPIRE STARTLED. The Empire was startled on July 16 of last year when a rumour flashed round the world that an attempt had been made to assassinate King Edward VIII. It was with relief that people learned that Actually no attempt had been made to injure the King, but that a revolver had been presented at him. The King was returning from a ceremony at which he had presented new colours to six battalions of Guards. lie was riding by Hyde Park corner when a man in the crowd was seen to raise a revolver. Accounts of what happened next are rather confused. but the revolver was thrown or knocked from the man’s hand end hurtled into the road, where it struck tile King’s horse. The King looked back, but rode on ■seemingly unperturbed, while his escort closed in behind him. The man who presented ' the weapon was immediately arrested, and appeared in court, where lie was charged under the Firearms Act, as George Andrew MacMahon, a journalist, aged 35. MacMahon explained that he had no Intention of injuring the King, and, after a trial which was followed with the closest attention all over the world, he was sentensed to twelve months’ imprisonment. It was stated in evidence during the trial that four chambers of MaoMalion’s revolver were loaded, but not that opposite the barrel when the weapon was pointed at the King.