Set Fire to Compressed Gunpowder

A story of some compressed gunpowder, a canister and a stairway unfolded in the courtroom at Hamilton on the morning of Sunday 1st August 1920. Local Blantyre man Robert Kerr, a labourer from Calder Street stood accused of breach of the peace in trying to blow up a house!

The Fiscal said the offence to which Kerr pleaded guilty displayed a great deal of foolishness on the part of any man. The only explanation was that the accused was not sober at the time.

Drunk, he got hold of some compressed gunpowder, placed it in a canister and deposited “the machine” in a stairway leading to dwelling houses in Calder Street. The gunpowder was ignitied and of course exploded. The Fiscal said this was the absolute limit of recklessness because had women or children been there at the time, they would have been frightened out of their wits. Kerr was fined 20 shillings and advised to leave gunpowder alone in future.

Source: The Sunday Post 1st August 1920.