Martial Bourdin (1868 – 15 February 1894) was a French anarchist, who died on 15 February 1894 when chemical explosives that he was carrying prematurely detonated outside the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park, London.[1]
Martial Bourdin | |
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| Born | 1868 Tours, France |
| Died | 15 February 1894 (aged 25–26) Greenwich Hospital, London, England |
| Other names | J. Allder |
| Occupation | Tailor |
| Movement | Anarchism |
Biography
editBourdin was a member of the anarchist tailors' group L’Aiguille, along with his brother Henri. He emigrated from France, working as a women's tailor in Detroit and later London. In London, he and his brother were members of Club Autonomie, a popular club for foreign anarchists.[2]
He died on 15 February 1894 when chemical explosives that he was carrying prematurely detonated outside the Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park.[3] The explosion completely destroyed his left hand and wrist, and blew a small hole through his abdomen.[4] Although Bourdin had sustained massive injuries, he remained alive and able to speak. He did not, however, reveal his name, specific target, or motives. He was carried to the Seamen's Hospital nearby, where he died 30 minutes later.[3] Bourdin was buried in the Finchley Road cemetery on 23 February. Louise Michel gave a speech at the funeral.[2]
Later, police investigators discovered that Bourdin had left his room on Fitzroy Street in London and travelled by tram from Westminster to Greenwich Park. The police concluded that "some mischance or miscalculation or some clumsy bungling" had caused the bomb to explode in Bourdin's hand. Because he was found with a large sum of money, the police speculated that he had planned to leave for France immediately.[3]
Legacy
editBourdin's gruesome death and the mystery surrounding his attempted act inspired Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, The Secret Agent.[5][1] Some scholars believe T. S. Eliot references Bourdin in his Ariel poem "Animula" when he writes "Pray...// For Boudin, blown to pieces," although Eliot uses the spelling "Boudin" and may not have had the anarchist in mind.[6]
Further reading
edit- Burgoyne, Mary (2007). "Conrad among the Anarchists: Documents on Martial Bourdin and the Greenwich Bombing". The Conradian. 32 (1): 147–ii. ISSN 0951-2314.
Notes
edit- ^ a b Higgitt, Rebekah (5 August 2016). "The real story of the Secret Agent and the Greenwich Observatory bombing". Guardian. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
- ^ a b Dupuy, Rolf; Enckell, Marianne (18 March 2020), "BOURDIN Martial", Le Maitron (in French), Paris: Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier, retrieved 4 October 2024
- ^ a b c "Astronomers and the anarchist bomber | Royal Museums Greenwich". www.rmg.co.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
- ^ "THE NECROPSY ON MARTIAL BOURDIN". The Lancet. 143 (3678): 491. 1894. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(01)66896-x. ISSN 0140-6736.
- ^ Mulry, David (2000), "Popular Accounts of the Greenwich Bombing and Conrad's 'The Secret Agent'", Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 54 (2): 43–64, doi:10.1353/rmr.2000.a459944.
- ^ Southam, B. C., A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994, p. 245.
References
edit- Cronin, Isaac. Confronting Fear: A History of Terrorism (New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2002)