Assassination!

St Neots Players reveal story behind prime minister’s assassin

The name “John Bellingham” probably rings few bells with the average passer-by on a British street – unless that person happens to be a historian or archaeology buff.

The historian will likely recognise the name of the only person to ever assassinate a British prime minister.

The archaeologist may know the name of the man who, when he lived, was the owner of a skull that today sits in Queen Mary’s Pathology Museum, London.

But Bellingham’s name may soon become more widely known through a theatrical event presented by the St Neots Players in Cambridgeshire in November. Written by longtime Players member Glenys Shaw, the presentation is based on letters written by protagonists in the story, notably Bellingham himself and Lord Granville Leverson Gower.

Bellingham was born in St Neots, and the families of both himself and his wife were local to the area. John Bellingham and his wife did not stay in St Neots, living mostly in Liverpool and London, where he pursued a career in trading, Shaw said, “He moved to Russia but fell into trouble with the Russian authorities and was incarcerated there for two years in a rat-infested cell where he lived on bread and water.

Bellingham protested his innocence, attempting to involve the British ambassador to Russia at the time, Lord Gower, amongst many other British and Russian authorities, to gain his release. He was unsuccessful. He got no help from the British government whatsoever,”

Shaw says, “He was eventually freed and came back to this country, and nobody still took any notice when he started to talk about compensation and how his family had suffered.

You can feel sorry for him when you read my account of it; yes, you would say, my god, poor man. A lot of people thought, ‘Poor man’ … but it was a very complicated political scenario at the time,” Shaw says. “Still, no one in power paid any attention to Bellingham’s pleas for support and compensation. This led to his increasing bitterness and anger.”

On 11 May, 1812, Bellingham shot Perceval dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. He was tried and found guilty on 15 May 1812, and executed three days later. The punishment for his crime at the time was to be “hanged and anatomised”, meaning that his body was disassembled.

Today, it is said to be the most famous item in the London pathology hospital.

Shaw says she was prompted to write the show by a young woman who felt the major population growth in St Neots, recognised as Cambridgeshire’s fastest-growing town, required some insight into the area’s little-known history. In partnership with the local history society, Assassination!  was constructed. “We’re doing this together,” Shaw says. “I do think people like to know about their community.”

The young woman who joined Shaw to translate the tale into a performance-ready script is portraying the narrator in the production.

Liz Davies, a local historian, is to deliver historical context in a talk during the presentation. “Liz’s talk will put meat on the bones,” Shaw says.

Being held at the United Reformed Church, the production is planned to be staged only once.

“I hope it works,” Shaw joked, “I’ve only ever written children’s plays before!”

DeeDee Doke

East Regional Editor