WILLIAM Futcher marched into
Winchester City Magistrates'
Court under escort and dressed
in his full naval uniform to
answer a charge of being a
deserter from his ship, HMS
Goliath, stationed in Portsmouth.
He denied the allegation.
The chief witness in the case
was PC Simmonds, who stated
how he had gone to a house in
North Walls shortly after midnight
and found Futcher asleep.
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"I told him to get up and he did
so," the officer recalled. "When I
charged him, the prisoner
replied, That was what I was
expecting'."
PC Simmonds told the hearing
that day in 1906 that on the way
to the police station, Futcher told
him, "I did not mean to go back".
The officer told the magistrates
that he had seen Futcher the previous
evening after receiving a
message from his captain ordering
him to return to the ship.
The city's head constable then
produced a telegram from the
captain confirming what the officer
had said and a statement
ordering Futcher to be detained.
The rating accepted the circumstances
of his arrest but claimed
that he had not been a deserter
but was absent without leave.
"I have not been adrift for seven
days," he explained.
The court ordered Futcher to be
returned to the Goliath, and he
left the court under escort.
It had been an extraordinarily
quiet week in court business in
the county town that week. There
were only three cases before the
bench - a second involved a
drunk, the other featured an allegation
of dangerous driving.
Only a couple of days earlier,
the city's Quarter Sessions had
been abandoned without a single
case. The clerk, Walter Bailey,
made the formal announcement
in court that there were no prisoners
for trial and no appeals to
be heard. He said: "I have also
been authorised to countermand
the attendance of the grand jury
and petty juries as a matter of
convenience to all those who have
been summoned."
That included the judge,
Recorder C A Spencer Garland,
who had been notified about the
lack of work and had not attended.
It then left the mayor, W H
Forder, with the task of adjourning
the next sessions to a date to
be fixed, before congratulating
the city on the extraordinary scenario.
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