Martial Bourdin
{{Short description|French anarchist (1868–1894)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Martial Bourdin
| image = Anarchist Martial Bourdin (1868–1894).jpg
| other_names = J. Allder
| birth_date = {{Birth year|1868}}
| birth_place = Tours, France
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1894|02|15|1868|||df=y}}
| death_place = Greenwich Hospital, London, England
| occupation = Tailor
| movement = Anarchism
}}
File:Royal Greenwich Observatory Postcard c1902.jpg c. 1902, as depicted on a postcard]]
Martial Bourdin (1868 – 15 February 1894) was a French anarchist, noted for his attempt to bomb Greenwich Observatory. He sustained fatal injuries when his bomb exploded prematurely as he was carrying it through Greenwich Park, London.{{cite news |last1=Higgitt |first1=Rebekah |title=The real story of the Secret Agent and the Greenwich Observatory bombing |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2016/aug/05/secret-agent-greenwich-observatory-bombing-of-1894 |access-date=3 April 2024 |work=Guardian |date=5 August 2016}}
Biography
Bourdin 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.{{Citation |last=Dupuy |first=Rolf |title=BOURDIN Martial |date=2020-03-18 |work=Le Maitron |url=https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article215641 |access-date=2024-10-04 |place=Paris |publisher=Maitron/Editions de l'Atelier |language=fr |last2=Enckell |first2=Marianne}}
On 15 February 1894 Bourdin entered Greenwich Park, carrying a small bomb, which exploded in his hand.{{Cite web |title=Astronomers and the anarchist bomber {{!}} Royal Museums Greenwich |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/astronomers-anarchist-bomber |access-date=2024-10-04 |website=www.rmg.co.uk |language=en}} The explosion completely destroyed his left hand and wrist, and blew a small hole through his abdomen.{{Cite journal |date=1894 |title=THE NECROPSY ON MARTIAL BOURDIN. |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S014067360166896X |journal=The Lancet |volume=143 |issue=3678 |pages=491 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(01)66896-x |issn=0140-6736|url-access=subscription }} Although Bourdin had sustained massive injuries, he remained alive and able to speak, but refused to answer questions. He was carried to the Seamen's Hospital nearby, where he died 30 minutes later. Bourdin was buried in the Finchley Road cemetery on 23 February. Fellow Anarchist Louise Michel gave a speech at the funeral.
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.
David Rooney argues that Bourdin intended to destroy the observatory's public clock, with which time clocks throughout Britain were synchronized.{{cite book |last1=Rooney |first1=David |title=About time: a history of civilization in twelve clocks |date=2021 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-86793-0 |edition=First American}}
Legacy
Bourdin's gruesome death and the mystery surrounding his attempted act inspired Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, The Secret Agent.{{Citation | last = Mulry | first = David | title = Popular Accounts of the Greenwich Bombing and Conrad's 'The Secret Agent' | journal = Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature | volume = 54 | issue = 2 | year = 2000 | pages = 43–64| doi = 10.1353/rmr.2000.a459944 }}. 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.Southam, B. C., A Guide to the Selected Poems of T.S. Eliot, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994, p. 245.
Further reading
- {{Cite journal |last=Burgoyne |first=Mary |date=2007 |title=Conrad among the Anarchists: Documents on Martial Bourdin and the Greenwich Bombing |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20873587 |journal=The Conradian |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=147–ii |issn=0951-2314}}
Notes
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References
- Cronin, Isaac. Confronting Fear: A History of Terrorism (New York: Thunder's Mouth, 2002)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourdin, Martial}}
Category:19th-century French criminals
Category:Accidental deaths in London
Category:Date of birth missing