From the Kent Herald, 9 December 1824.

A Singular Case Of Lunacy.

In Re Millson, a supposed Lunatic.

During the last week a commission of lunacy was held at the "Royal Mortar" public house, in Woolwich, the proceedings excited the utmost curiosity. The subject of the inquiry was one of the oldest farmers in Kent, who is possessed of property to the value of between £30,000 and £40,000.

The evidence given upon these facts closed the case for the petition, which the alleged lunatic himself was brought forward for examination. When he was ushered into the presence of the jury, he looked round him with a vacant stare, but behaved himself with perfect proprietary. He is a remarkably stout healthy-looking old man. His hands were evidently affected with paralysis. He sat down and the following examination took place by Dr. Phillimore:-

How are you, sir?

Pretty well; pretty well.

How goes on Farming?

Pretty well, pretty well.

They are now, then, good times for you?

Oh yes.

Then you find them good?

Oh no, they are bad.

How old are you?

36.

What is your name?

So and so.

Dr. Phillimore repeated the question, and the same answer was returned.

Why, I thought your name was Millson?

Oh, (recollecting,) so it is; yes, it is.

The examination was continued, but the above is a fair specimen of the whole.

Dr. Phillimore summed up the evidence, and the Jury returned a verdict, finding that Thomas Millson, senior, had not been of sound mind since the 25th of September, 1820.

The management of the lunatic will, in his usual course, now devolve upon the son.

Kent Herald, 25 September 1845.

Explosion at Woolwich Laboratory, Seven Lives Lost.

One of the most frightful accidents that ever occurred happened on Wednesday morning, in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. A few minutes before 10 o'clock a loud explosion was heard in the Laboratory Department, at a building known as No 1. Breaking-up shed. Assistance was immediately at hand, the men rushing from various parts of the department to the spot. As soon as ingress could be obtained, a fearful spectacle presented itself. Immediately behind the door, crowded together in a confused heap, lay the scorched bodies of five men and two boys. They were immediately removed to an adjacent shed on stretchers. The building being on fire, the alarm bell was instantly rung, and the engines from the different departments, with the Royal Sappers and Miners, and the Royal Artillery, were speedily on the spot. The flames, by the exertion of the men, was soon subdued, their ravages being confined to the building, the roof of which had been already blown off, and some slight damage done to the roof of an adjacent building.

It would appear, from what had been gleaned in other parts of the same department (for not one of the unfortunate beings in the devoted building had escaped to furnish any information), that the men and boys were at the time employed in breaking up rockets, and through some friction the whole mass accidentally ignited; thus at once consigning seven unfortunate individuals to instant destruction.

The names of the persons who thus lost their lives are John Crake (master,) and aged man, and one of the oldest servants in the department; H. Butters, and aged man, with a large family, and his son, Henry Butters, a young married man; Robert Burbage, and Michael Purtill. Four of these were what is called laboratory men. In addition to these, two boys, named Leonard and Henley, lost their lives. Purtill was a labourer belonging to the store-keeper's department, and was engaged at the time in loading rockets. A man named William Reid, who was engaged with him at the same time, had a very narrower escape.

It would appear that when the fatal occurrence took place the unfortunate persons made a simultaneous rush towards the door. Unfortunately the doors opened inwards, and so this circumstance some of the chief officers of the establishment attributed their destruction. By the side of the door out of which they had vainly endeavoured to escape, their blackened corpses were found.

The writer visited them shortly afterwards, and then presented a fearful proof of the dreadful agent to which they had been exposed. Their clothes, and even their boots, where either wholly or partially consumed, their bodies literally roasted, and the flesh in many cases deeply incised; every vestige of hair was consumed off their heads, and their features so disfigured as to render their identification almost impossible.

As soon as the fire was subdued a party of the Royal Sappers and Miners, under the command of Colonel Barney, R.E. one of the head department, and Lieutenant and Adjutant Webb, R.E. proceeded to pull down the remaining parts of the shed, many of which were in a dangerous state.

The remains of a dog were discovered in one corner of the building. It was the opinion of a medical gentleman, who viewed the bodies with the writer, that death took place from suffocation by carbonic acid gas.

The Inquest.

On Thursday, a highly respectable jury was empanelled at the "Royal Mortar Tavern," Woolwich, before Mr. C. J. Carttar, to inquire into the death of the seven unfortunate persons. From all the information we could gather on the subject, it appears that the deceased were the only persons in the building when the accident occurred, so that the cause of the melancholy catastrophe is at present involved in mystery. It appears that the building in which the sufferers were at work was, inconsequence of the explosion, considered unsafe, that a portion of it was immediately pulled down, all the glass having been destroyed, and the rafters on fire.

The remains of the unfortunate men were removed to another building in the Arsenal for identification, awaiting the coroner's inquisition. The jury, having been sworn, proceeded to view the bodies. They presented a most horrible spectacle, not a feature, of any being recognizable, the whole of the clothing, with the exception of their shoes, being entirely calcined, and the bodies scorched in the most dreadful manner, the skin coming off at the touch.

On the return of the jury, witnesses were examined, and the room having been cleared of strangers, the jury remained nearly an hour in deliberation, and they returned the following verdict:- "That the deceased died from the effects of the explosion of combustible material; but that there was no evidence of the cause of that explosion."

The Coroner having informally announced the verdict, address Colonel Cockburn, and said that the jury, without attributing want of caution to the authorities in their mode of carrying on the works, submitting for their consideration, the propriety of abolishing the steel chisel, and substituting it for the copper. They also urge the proprietor of not allowing the work men to wear nails in their shoes, and that the door should be made to open outwards. Colonel Cockburn, assured the coroner of the deep regret which the lamentable occurrence caused to everyone connected with the Arsenal, and pledged himself that the recommendations of the jury would be scrupulously obeyed.

He was resolved, that the fuses instead of being split, should be in future boiled. The death of the foreman, said the gallant colonel, was deeply felt, as he was a most steady, trustworthy man, who's experienced was a guarantee for his precautions against accidents, or risks. A more worthy man never lived. He again repeating, that for their own safety and that of the man, the utmost precautions will be instantly adopted. He agreed with the jury, that it was so to be lamented that the doors did not open outwards as they did in every other part of the building.

Removal of the Bodies.

In the morning the mangled bodies of deceased were placed in a neat coffins prepared at the expense of the Government, and removed to their late residences.

In 1814, during a visit of the Allied Powers to the metropolis, a similar casualty occurred at the Arsenal. Several men were engaged preparing fireworks to be displayed in honor of the Royal Visitors, when an explosion took place, and four men were killed on the spot, whose bodies were buried, and whose widows were fully pensioned by Government.