To Kill at 30 Yards

I found this article in the Staffordshire Sentinel, 23 August 1912, page 4.

Herbert Clement Taylor is my 2nd great uncle.

John Herbert Taylor and Mary Ann Hannah Mart are my 2nd great grandparents and Herbert Clement's parents.

There is another article about this, which gives Herbert Clement's address as 25 Adams Street, Milton, I have this address recorded as where they were living when the 1911 census took place.

The transcription reads:

TO KILL AT 30 YARDS

Youth's Foolish Conduct with a Pistol

At Stoke-on-Trent Police Court, before the Potteries Stipendiary (Mr. B.C. Brough), Eustace Smith (15) of Market Street, Milton, was charged with wounding another boy living in Milton named Herbert Clement Taylor.

Taylor said on the morning of July 21 he met Smith carrying a pistol. Defendant fired a shot on the ground and witness asked him if he had a box of caps to discharge. Smith replied, "Wait a minute and I will show you." He walked away, and when twenty or thirty yards distant, turned round, pointed the pistol at witness and fired. The bullet hit him in the leg, and he had to hop to his home.

Inspector Dix said Smith on being charged said he aimed at a wall, and di not intend to hit Taylor. The pistol would kill a man at thirty yards' range.

The Stipendiary said it was fortunate Taylor had not been seriously injured. Defendant would be fined £3 and costs. He did not know if the authorities would take further steps against defendant for carrying a gun without a licence, but he had rendered himself liable to be sent to a place of detention for a considerable time.