Broadmoor Revealed_ Victorian Crime and the Lunatic Asylum - Mark Stevens [12]
Oxford’s health on arrival in Broadmoor was stated to be good, though he suffered from constipation and some oedema (swelling) in his lower legs. By this date he was forty-two years old, and had been confined for nearly twenty-four years.
His notes on arrival in Broadmoor record: ‘A well conducted industrious man apparently sane, has been rather out of health since last Christmas and has suffered from urethritis since his admission here – this he attributes to his having taken various unusual things to drink just before leaving Bethlem. He is now in better general health. He states that he fired a pistol charged with powder only at the Queen on June 10th 1840. That he did it under the impression that he should thereby become a noted person and that he had not the smallest intention of injuring Her Majesty.’
He carried on his diligent application to hard work at Broadmoor, working daily as a wood grainer and a painter and being very well-behaved. It was increasingly obvious that Oxford no longer posed a risk to anyone, and that he was also completely sane. Sir William Hayter, the Chair of Broadmoor’s scrutiny body, the Council of Supervision, wrote to Home Secretary Sir George Grey in November 1864 stating that Oxford was of sound mind. Not only did John Meyer, Broadmoor’s Medical Superintendent, testify to this, but also Charles Hood, a member of the Council and Oxford’s previous physician at Bethlem. Hood said that Oxford had been sane since at least 1854, when the patient was first in his care. Hayter suggested that Oxford was perfectly capable of being allowed to make his own way in the world.
Grey ignored the request. He had been Judge Advocate General in the Government in 1840, and perhaps he was uncomfortable with allowing the discharge of a case in which he probably had an interest. Instead, Oxford stayed on in the Asylum until September 1867, when new Home Secretary Gathorne Hardy began the process of agreeing to Oxford’s discharge when he asked Hayter to provide an up-to-date report on Oxford’s mental condition. Subsequently, Hardy offered Oxford release on condition that he went overseas to one of the colonies, and never returned to the United Kingdom. Oxford indicated that he was willing to accept the terms.
Meyer proposed that he arrange a passage to Australia for Oxford. Before Oxford’s discharge, the patient was visited by twelve officers from the Metropolitan Police, who took notes about his appearance and photographed him, should he attempt to return. It was made clear to him that if he ever set foot again on the British Isles, he would be locked up for good. Sadly, no copy of the photograph survives in the Broadmoor archives.
The warrant for Oxford’s release arrived at Broadmoor towards the end of October. His passage was arranged for a month later. Accompanied by Charles Phelps, the Steward at Broadmoor, Oxford travelled to Plymouth on 26th November 1867. The next day he boarded HMS Suffolk for Melbourne. He remained on board for several days, waiting as the ship was detained in port, until she finally left on 3rd December. Phelps was made to sign an affidavit that ‘To the best of my knowledge and belief Oxford was on board when she sailed.’
Oxford certainly sailed to Australia, though the rest of his life is less well documented. In the Broadmoor archive, the only subsequent intelligence about Oxford comes from a letter from George Haydon, one time Steward at Bethlem, to Dr David Nicolson at Broadmoor in 1883. Haydon quoted an article from The Age, a Melbourne newspaper, of which he had been made aware. The article, included with the letter, is about a man called John Oxford, and is dated 4th May 1880. John Oxford was named as the man who shot at the Queen many years ago, and had subsequently been a patient in an asylum before he was discharged to Australia. He had recently been convicted of stealing a shirt and spent a week in jail. Upon his release, the prison governor had asked the police to keep an eye on him, ‘in consequence of the old man’s eccentric conduct’. To that