Chapter 25

Madan Lal Dhingra

1909

The entertainment in the Jehangir Hall in the Imperial Institute, South Kensington, on Thursday, 1 July 1909, had been enjoyed by all of the distinguished guests and now, as the meeting broke up, people gathered in small groups to talk and discuss the speeches that they had heard. One of the guests, Sir William Hutt Curzon-Wylie, the Aide-de-Camp to the Secretary of State for India, stood in the doorway, talking to some people.

One of the people Sir William was speaking to was a young Indian gentleman, wearing evening dress and a blue turban. Suddenly, as people still milled about, the young Indian raised his hand and pointed a gun directly at Sir William’s head. Four shots were fired directly into Sir William’s head. These shots were followed by a pause, and then another shot rang out. For some moments, all the other guests in the room were shocked into inactivity but, after the fifth shot was fired, a number of men moved forward to grab the assailant. One of those men was Dr Cowas Lalcaca and as he approached, the young Indian raised the gun once more and fired a bullet into Dr Lalcaca’s stomach. Finally, the young Indian raised the gun to his own temple and pulled the trigger. There was a loud click. The assailant was out of ammunition. He was immediately seized and pinned to the floor, pending the arrival of the police.

The first police officer on the scene was Constable Frederick Nicholls. By now, the man who had fired those six shots was on his feet and being held by several men. He offered no resistance, as Nicholls took him into custody, or as the officer searched him. Within a few minutes, Detective Sergeant Frank Eadley arrived at the Institute and he assisted Nicholls to escort the prisoner to Marylebone police station. There, the young man identified himself as Madan Lal Dhingra, a student. Lal Dhingra had been born in the Punjab on 18 February 1883 to a family, who were loyal to the British. As a young man he had studied at Lahore, but had been expelled due to his political activities. He had then travelled to England, arriving here in 1906 and enrolling as a student of mechanical engineering at University College.

At the police station, Lal Dhingra was informed that both Sir William and Dr Lalcaca were dead, and in the early hours of 2 July, he was charged with murdering both men. He made a full written statement, explaining his motives for the crimes.

Later that same day, Friday, 2 July, Madan Lal Dhingra appeared at the Westminster Police Court. The evidence having been heard, the prisoner was duly sent for trial on the capital charge. His trial took place exactly three weeks later, on 23 July, before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Alverstone. A formidable array of legal talent lined up for the prosecution. Led by the Attorney General, Sir William Robson, he was assisted by Mr Bodkin, Mr Rowlatt and Mr Leycester. Lal Dhingra had no legal representation whatsoever.

At the start of the trial, Lal Dhingra refused to be represented, saying that he did not recognise the court. In his opinion, as far as Sir William was concerned, he had committed no crime. He had merely assassinated an enemy of his country. As for the death of Dr Lalcaca, that had been nothing more than a tragic accident and was a case of self-defence. Despite his remonstrations, a formal not guilty plea was entered and evidence called on just the one offence; the murder of Sir William.

Mrs Harris lived at 106 Ledbury Road, Bayswater, and she testified that the prisoner had come to lodge with her on Easter Monday, 1909. On the day of the shooting, 1 July, he had left her house at 2.00pm. He had returned at around 8.00pm in order to change for a meeting he said he was going to. He had changed quickly and left soon afterwards.

William Burrow was an assistant at Gamage’s Store in Holborn. He told the court that his employer sold guns, amongst many other items, and kept a register of purchases. This register confirmed that on 26 January, he had sold a Colt automatic pistol to Madan Lal Dhingra, for the sum of £3 5s.

The next witness proved that Lal Dhingra had then started to practise using that weapon. Henry Stanton Morley owned a shooting range at 92 Tottenham Court Road and he stated that some time around March, Lal Dhingra had started attending the range two or three times a week. Over the next three months he became a much better shot and by now was quite proficient. He always brought his own weapon, a Colt automatic, and had last attended on 1 July, at around 5.30pm. Morley then produced the target Lal Dhingra had used on that day. He had fired twelve shots at a target 18 feet away, and scored eleven hits.

Miss Beck was the Honorary Secretary of the National Indian Association, the group who had organised the events of 1 July at the Institute. She began by confirming that Sir William had been a member of the Council and the Honorary Treasurer of the group.

Miss Beck went on to say that she had first encountered Lal Dhingra in March 1909, when he had written to say that he was interested in attending meetings or talks given by the Association. There had been a talk given in May and she had sent him an invitation, but he did not attend. The next time she had contacted Lal Dhingra was to send him an invitation for the discussion on the evening of 1 July. She had seen him there, at around 10.30pm, and spoke to him briefly. She knew that he was a student at University College and asked him about his course. He explained that he had now completed his studies and was about to return to India.

Douglas William Thorburn was a journalist and he was at the Institute to cover the meeting for his newspaper. At 11.00pm, he was in the main hall when he happened to glance up. He saw Lal Dhingra, apparently in conversation with Sir William, in the doorway. He saw the prisoner raise a gun and fire four shots directly into Sir William’s face. Moments later, he saw Dr Lalcaca fall to the floor after being shot. Thorburn was one of the men who then ran forward and helped push Lal Dhingra to the floor.

Sir Leslie Probyn was another of the guests at the meeting. He too saw the shots being fired and went to help Thorburn and others pin the shooter to the ground. It was Probyn who wrestled the gun from Lal Dhingra’s hand and later handed it over to the police.

Captain Charles Rolleston had his back to the shooting, but turned in time to see Lal Dhingra fire at an Indian gentleman in evening dress. He now knew that gentleman to be Dr Lalcaca and Rolleston saw him fall backwards, after he had been shot.

After Constable Nicholls and Sergeant Eadley had given their testimony, Inspector Albert Draper took the stand. He had had charge of Lal Dhingra at the police court and he testified that after the proceedings had closed, Lal Dhingra spoke to him saying; ‘The only thing I want to say is that there was no wilful murder in the case of Dr Lalcaca. I did not know him and when he advanced to take hold of me, I simply fired in self-defence.’

Doctor Thomas Neville had been called to the Institute to examine both victims of the attack. Later, at the police station, he examined the prisoner and found him to be calm, collected and quiet. Dr Neville checked Lal Dhingra’s pulse and found it to be perfectly regular and normal.

Neville had performed both post-mortems, but only detailed the wounds suffered by Sir William. He had been shot in the right eye and there was a corresponding exit wound at the back of his neck. There were two wounds just over his left eye and another below his left ear. Death would have been instantaneous.

After all the evidence had been heard, Lal Dhingra was asked if he had anything to say in his own defence. He replied, ‘I have nothing to say. I admit that I did it. The evidence is all true. I should like my statement read.’

The statement Lal Dhingra referred to was a long one he had made after his arrest. This was then read out in court. It began: ‘I do not want to say anything in defence of myself, but simply to prove the justice of my deed. As for myself, no English law court has got any authority to arrest and detain me in prison, or pass sentence of death on me.’

The statement continued: ‘And I maintain that if it is patriotic in an Englishman to fight against the Germans, if they were to occupy this country, then it is much more justifiable and patriotic in my case to fight against the English.

‘I hold the English people responsible for the murder of eighty millions of Indian people in the last fifty years, and they are also responsible for taking £100,000,000 every year from India to this country.

‘I also hold then responsible for the hanging and deportation of my patriotic countrymen, who did just the same as the English people here are advising their countrymen to do.

‘Just as the Germans have no right to occupy this country, so the English people have no right to occupy India, and it is perfectly justifiable on our part, to kill the Englishman who is polluting our sacred land.

‘I make this statement, not because I wish to plead for mercy or anything of that kind. I wish that English people should sentence me to death, for in that case the vengeance of my countrymen will be all the more keen. I put forward this statement, to show the justice of my cause to the outside world, and especially to our sympathisers in America and Germany.’

The verdict was a formality, the jury not even bothering to leave the court before returning it, and Lal Dhingra was then sentenced to death. He listened in silence as the death sentence was intoned and then replied, ‘Thank you my Lord. I don’t care. I am proud to have the honour of laying down my life for the cause of my motherland.’

There was no appeal and no reprieve. On Tuesday, 17 August, twenty-six-year-old Madan Lal Dhingra was hanged at Pentonville prison by Henry Pierrepoint and his brother, Thomas.

The authorities had refused one of Lal Dhingra’s last requests: that his body be granted Hindu burial rites, and he was interred in a grave within the prison. There he remained until December 1976 when his body was exhumed, along with that of Udham Singh, another Indian hanged in 1940 for a political assassination.

Both bodies were then repatriated to India.