- Robert Pate
Robert Francis Pate, Jr (1819–1889) was a former
British Army officer , best remembered for hisassault onQueen Victoria onJune 27 ,1850 .Military career
In 1841, Pate purchased a Cornetcy in the
10th Light Dragoons . He purchased aLieutenant cy the following year.The attack
The Queen had visited
Cambridge House inPiccadilly onJune 27 ,1850 , in order to see her dying uncle,Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge . At about 6:20 that evening, her carriage was leaving the courtyard when Robert Pate, formerly an officer in the British Army, beat her on the head with a small cane that he was carrying. He beat her quite forcibly on the head, crushing her bonnet. By some accounts, this attack drew blood, but by others she was merely bruised.In either case, Pate was immediately arrested and was quickly put on trial. He attempted to plead
insanity , but the judges found him sane. As a result, Pate was given the maximum sentence, seven years ofpenal transportation .In Tasmania
In August 1850, Robert Pate was sent to
Van Diemen's Land , which is today known asTasmania . Pate served his seven years of penal servitude, during and immediately after which he may have accumulated riches, possibly in gold. In any case, he returned to England, and his wife, in early 1860.Later life
Following his penal servitude in Tasmania, Robert Pate returned to his home town of
Wisbech , in order to settle his father's estate. His father, Robert Pate, Sr., had died shortly before Pate's return and likely left a small fortune, having been Deputy Lord Lieutenant ofCambridgeshire and High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire andHuntingdonshire . The elder Pate had also been a major factor in the corn market locally.The publishers of the local newspaper, "The Wisbech Advertiser", reported Pate's death at the age of seventy. He had left an estate of ₤22,464 (equivalent to £1,779,996 today 2007) [ [http://www.measuringworth.com/index.html Measuring Worth - Home ] ] to his wife.
Footnotes
External links
* [http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENUKI/1997-06/0865865319|Bolam, Valentine. "PATE, Robert." RootsWeb. 09 June 1997]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
