In the spring of 1909 a series of startling events in Cornwall became front page news across the British Isles. The newspapers reported that a ‘madman’ had shot four people and had barricaded himself into his home in the small rural town of St Blazey. Cecil Dench was quoted as saying that his home was his “own castle” and that he would shoot anyone that approached it. He was frighteningly true to his word and remained under siege in his little cottage for four nights and three days.

So who was this so called ‘madman’? And what had led him to take such drastic actions?

This was a story that I stumbled upon by chance and one that I have decided to write about for a number of reasons – because the events were and still are (thankfully) very unusual in Cornwall, because for a brief moment the unlikely location of St Blazey was the focus of nationwide attention for all the wrong reasons, but mostly because I felt that the reporting of this story was so prejudicial, unpleasant and unkind towards Cecil Dench that I wanted to find out more about him. I wanted to try and understand why he had acted the way he did and, if necessary, set the record straight.

WARNING: This story contains quotes from the original newspaper reports and so contains outdated and offensive language. There is also reference to serious mental health issues that some readers may find upsetting.

Who was Cecil Dench?

When I read about these events for the first time I had one question that kept coming back to me – what had happened to Cecil to make him behave in such an astonishing way? Was he as the newspaper intimated a “crazed lunatic” or was there more to the story?

I found myself trying to understand this unfortunate man who had been written off by the press as a “half wit”, “eccentric”, “queer”, “dirty”, “repulsive” and “broken down”. Reading the various articles carefully I found that there were small clues that there was something more to this, more to him. Tiny details that revealed quite a different story. And then the parish, census and archive records filled in more of the gaps.

So let’s start at the beginning.

Cecil spent most of his life in what is known locally as Clay Country. His parents, John Pengelly Dench and Emma Mary Worden married in St Enoder Church in Summercourt in January 1852. John was a blacksmith, like his father William had been before him, and the couple went on to have seven children together. Their eldest, John, born in 1856 followed his father into the trade. Cecil was the second youngest child, baptised in 1868.

For the first part of Cecil’s life the Dench family lived on Dyers Row in Summercourt and his father worked as a blacksmith at the Parkandillack China Clay Works. Cecil is said to have received his early education from a School Board and to have been a good student. By the time of the 1881 census the family had moved to Fraddon and Cecil, then aged 12, is still noted as a student. Then sometime in the 1890s they all moved again, this time to St Dennis.

After leaving school Cecil is said to have left home for a time to study to become a clerk in the Civil Service, one journalist even claimed that he had travelled to America. Why his career faltered and he returned home to live with his parents is not clear but an incident in his childhood may hold the key.

It was said that Cecil had been unwell in his younger years but during the trial his mother Emma expanded on this. She told the Judge that he had been hit by a waggon and that it had been “a serious accident”. This accident, which may have involved a head injury, appeared to effect his personality, he was said to have acted “queer” even after he had recovered. And perhaps the first obvious sign of this change in his temperament came in July 1894 when he was roughly 26 years old. It was reported in the papers that Cecil Dench of St Dennis had been fined 5s for “assaulting Thomas Champion”.

Thomas Henry Champion was also from Summercourt and was living in St Dennis with his wife, Johanna, at the time of the attack. Although we can’t know what happened between the two men, they were of a similar age and had grown up in the same small villages, it doesn’t seem too much of a leap to say that they knew each other and that this fight was somehow personal.

The following year, in February 1895 Cecil’s father, John, died aged 63. After his death Emma, his wife, and Cecil are said to have tried to open a boot and shoe shop together on Station Road in St Blazey but the business failed. It was one upsetting, stressful event after another. And two years later, in December 1897, Cecil was taken to Bodmin County Lunatic Asylum for the first time. It was a fairly long stay, he wasn’t released until 31 May 1898, nearly a year and a half later, and it is possible that this incarceration is the one that was later referred to in the newspapers at the time of the siege.

“The fight he showed four or five years ago when he was put in the asylum is not forgotten. On that occasion he kept at bay for some time three or four men and was not taken until he had stabbed three and hit another on the head with a poker.” – Yorkshire Evening Post, 10 April 1909

No one was seriously injured in the altercation but it was said that Cecil could only be removed to the asylum when the men had managed to pin him down and fit him with a straight-jacket. He was described as being of medium height and slight build but after this incident people began crediting him with having enormous strength.

It seems that he was well known in St Blazey because, despite the fact that the newspapers noted that he only liked leaving his home at night or early in the morning, local people mentioned that he often spoke with his male neighbours. It was said that he was well read, well informed and considered to have “more than ordinary abilities”. Several acquaintances and neighbours came to the cottage during the siege to try and speak to him – people he perhaps considered friends. While a local doctor told the London Daily News that Cecil was “not an ordinary lunatic . . . [he] knew right from wrong” and “was of considerable intelligence”. Cecil was also described as being “passionately fond” of music.

But since the onset of his illness Cecil had developed some rather strange, antisocial ideas and behaviours too. And it was this that the journalists just loved to emphasise in their articles.

“He holds peculiar views as to personal appearance. He contends men, like animals, are not supposed to wash and as a consequence he has not washed himself for years. He has hair and beard two or three feet long and is never properly clothed . . . Dench is in appearance the typical hermit. He is almost [black] in colour for want of washing and his hair is like a bushman’s in the backwoods of Australia.” – Cornishman, 15th April 1909.

The West Briton wrote that sometime in 1908 Cecil had decided to catch a train to London but, in an age when being seen in public without a hat was a faux pas, he had entered the carriage at Par completely bare chested.

Cecil had apparently purchased a “breech loader ” gun or shot gun in about 1907, though no one was sure how he had saved the money to buy it as he and his mother were living in poverty. However he came by it, the weapon was his pride and joy and he was said to have kept it spotlessly clean and carried it everywhere with him, sometimes using it to shoot at birds.

The Timeline of Events from April 1909

There are numerous accounts of what happened over those three days and four nights in St Blazey in April 1909 and while there are slight variations in the reporting, most of them follow roughly the same timeline, which I have outlined below. I have added detail where I thought it was necessary and important to our understanding of how the siege unfolded.

Wednesday 7th April

• On the evening of 7th Dench was gardening at the cottage he shared with his mother, Emma Dench, when a group of youngsters who were playing nearby began shouting at him and throwing stones. Dench apparently asked them to stop, told them he would tell the police and then threatened them with his gun.
• Soon after this, presumably because the teasing hadn’t stopped, Dench shoots at ground around the group of children and 8 year old Leonard Bishop received a minor head wound, most probably from a piece of shot rebounding off the floor.
• At 7pm PC Richards and Garfield Jewell, a local seaman and an acquaintance of Dench, arrive to talk to him. Cecil is already inside the cottage with his mother Emma and shoots at them from an upstairs window. Richards is unharmed but some shot catches Jewell in the back. He is not seriously hurt but the pair retreat.
• Sergt Matthews & PC Holwill are summoned to St Blazey from Tywardreath to try and talk to Dench, he barricades himself inside his cottage using furniture.
• Around 9pm Fred May, another friend of Cecil’s, approaches the house, Dench fires at him through the door, some shot hits him in the chest. A doctor removes 17 pieces of shot from May’s chest but again he is not seriously hurt.
• By 10.30pm a huge crowd of onlookers has gathered.
• Dench is heard nailing the doors shut.
• Armed police surround the house in St Blazey but decide to just watch and wait. The officers are instructed to only fire if Dench comes outside and is behaving threateningly and even then they are instructed to only shoot him in the lower limbs.

Thursday 8th April

• At 1am Archibald Turner, a plumber and another friend of Dench’s, arrives and says he knows him well and is confident he can help. He tries to enter the house with two other men and is shot in the hand/wrist. The wound is serious and Turner’s hand is amputated in hospital. Dench later says that he fired because he was frightened, it seemed to him that “a mob” was trying to break into his house.
• In the morning a female neighbour, perhaps Mrs Barton, is blocked from checking on Denchs by the police, she had wanted to take them a cup of tea.
• At around midday Emma Dench climbs out of the cottage window to fetch water and is blocked from returning by police. She tells them that there is no water and very little food inside.
• The police come up with a plan to spray water into the house with a fire hose but decide instead that the best course of action is to starve Cecil out.

Friday 9th April

• Nothing happens all day. Dench remains hidden inside.
• That afternoon or evening some local men put a ladder against the wall of the cottage and plan to climb up and drop dynamite down the chimney. Fortunately they are dissuaded from this but the ladder can be seen in the frontpage Daily Mirror image above.
• A travelling circus passes through St Blazey and as Cecil is known to be very fond of music it is hoped he might emerge at the sound of their band but there is no sign of him.
• In the evening John Dench, Cecil’s brother and a boot and shoe salesman in St Austell, arrives and speaks to him through the door.
• Cecil claims he will defend “his castle” and can hold out for a fortnight. He asks John if he could ask the neighbour, Mrs Barton, to bring him a cup of tea.

Saturday 10th April

• Cecil is quiet all day, although he can be heard moving around inside the cottage.
• A huge crowd has now gathered and is watching the house.
• In the evening John Dench arrives in St Blazey again and again speaks to Cecil through the hole in the door about surrendering, he refuses.
• John Dench expresses real concern for his brother’s welfare and the police’s plan to starve him out.

“Dench’s brother desired to convey food and drink to him but the police would not permit him. The policy adopted by the police was strongly resented by Mr John Dench who asserted that it was a shame to keep Cecil there and to starve him out and intimated that it was his intention either to write himself or get someone to communicate with the Home Secretary.

A few shared the view of the brother and on Saturday night one man was very strong in his denunciation of the policy. ‘It was’ he said ‘a crying shame that in these days a man should be left to endure the agonies of starvation and thirst. If the man has made himself amenable to the law why don’t the police take and arrest him rather than submit him to such agonies? In London or any other centre the police would not have followed a policy of inactivity, which has been the only mark of their efforts in this particular case. They have left action entirely to the civilians, while they themselves stood aloof.’ ” – Western Morning News, 12th April 1909

• Cecil asks to talk to Mr T Mason Hocking, a relieving officer from the St Austell Union workhouse, and suggests that he might agree to surrender to him if he will come.

Sunday 11th April

• At 2am there is an estimated crowd of 1000 people in the vicinity of the house.
• At 5.30am John Dench, Emma Dench and Mr Hosking approach the house. They all speak to Dench for some time and he agrees to come out without his gun. He is too weak to open the door that he nailed shut and has to be helped to climb out of the window.
• Cecil Dench surrenders in a very sorry state and is taken to the Pack Horse Hotel.
• At first he refuses to take anything to eat or drink, seemingly afraid of being poisoned but eventually takes a glass of warm milk and brandy.

A “Repulsive Spectacle”

This was the phrase that the Western Morning News used to describe the moment that Cecil Dench emerged from his home. The journalist wrote that the man was “horrifying” and “pitiable” with filthy matted hair tucked under a greasy cap and dirty, blacken clothes. (Cecil apparently shouted at a cameraman, probably the one that took the images below, to stop taking pictures.)

But what stuck me more was the suggestion that despite being close to physical collapse he refused to drink anything that was offered him. It was only when a local doctor, Dr Davis, perhaps a man known to him, advised him that it was ok did he drink the warm milk and brandy. The papers wrote that it was his first drink for three days.

Dench strikes you as a man who was paranoid and afraid. Afraid of the crowd, afraid of the police and afraid of what would happen to him next.

The Trial

Cecil Dench was taken to Tywardreath police station and placed in a cell there where he lay down on the floor and refused to speak. There was a short magistrates hearing on the 12th April and then on 14th April he was removed to Bodmin Prison where he remained until his trial. He appeared at the Bodmin Assizes on 19th June charged with unlawfully wounding two people – the boy, Leonard Bishop and the plumber, Archibald Turner.

During the trial it emerged that a group of around 20 or 30 boys often teased Dench, calling him names and throwing sticks and stones at him. His mother confirmed that he was “very much molested” by them and one of the boys present that day also gave evidence. Frederick Billing aged 14 confessed that they had been doing this again on the day the siege started and that one of the stones they had thrown had hit Dench on the head.

Dench himself spoke and said that he had lived in St Blazey with his mother for 12 years and that he was often attacked in this way. On the day of the shootings he had gone inside the cottage to escape the boys and waited for some time for them to leave. He had then gone back outside with his gun because he planned to try and shoot blackbirds for his tea, he said he regularly ate wild birds because they were so poor. When he came out into the garden the boys were still there and started shouting and throwing stones at him again.

Cecil said that he hid behind a wall but that he was still being hit by stones and was frightened, so turned to return to the house but stumbled and the gun went off into the air. He told the judge “I did not intend to shoot anyone”.

Cecil’s lawyer, Mr Jenkin, told the court:

“[he has been] the object of wholesale ridicule and even brutality from some of the residents [of St Blazey] . . . his unkempt appearance had made him the target of their bullying . . . his life became one of misery and unhappiness.”

Archibald Turner was there as a witness too and told the jury that he and Cecil had been on good terms for 12 years and that he had only gone to the house to talk to him. When asked if he had anything to say Dench responded “No, I do not wish to say much, They (pointing at the jury) can find me guilty, they are righteous.”

Cecil Dench was indeed found guilty of both charges and he was sentenced to six years in prison.

The Aftermath

In the weeks following the trial Dench and his lawyer appealed against his conviction on the grounds that the sentence was too severe and that he had been insane at the time that he had committed the offences. His appeal was denied twice and he was taken to Bodmin Prison and then, according to his records, moved to Lewes Prison in East Sussex in August 1909.

In May the following year his mother Emma died at the age of 76, although the papers reported that she was in her 80s. In September 1910 the Western Morning News ran an article claiming that Dench had been declared insane and moved to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, although I haven’t been able to confirm this.

And sadly it was not just Cecil and the Dench family who were facing the consequences of the siege.

In 1913 Archibald Turner appeared in the papers again, this time the former plumber was before a Judge for unpaid debts. Unfortunately we learn that due to loosing his hand Turner has been unable to work and has been “making money as a travelling musician”. He has been lugging a gramophone across the country playing tunes for a few pennies but has been unable to support himself, let alone his wife and children. The Judge expressed his sorrow at the man’s plight and the debts were allayed.

Cecil served at least 5 of his 6 years and then it seems returned home to Clay Country but perhaps not to St Blazey. The St Austell Board of Guardians mentions him in their records in April 1914 and again in August 1914.

The minutes of the Board’s meeting note:

” – the man, Cecil Dench, who was recently admitted to the Workhouse, left nine pairs of boots and fifteen pairs of shoes and slippers, valued about £3, in his lodgings.” 

The officer is asking what should be done about this situation, the reply is not recorded but was is nice to note is that the relieving officer reporting this was Cecil’s old friend, Mr Hocking. Later in the year the minutes record:

“A letter was read from Cecil Dench saying ‘the Master declined to hand over his Clothes, and refused to take his discharge’. The Master said that the man took his discharge the previous day, ‘but his mental condition was affected’.”

The implication here is that Cecil was unwell again and the officer in charge had not given him back his clothes so that he wasn’t able to leave the workhouse – probably for his own safety.

From these scant records we can imagine that although Cecil managed to stay out of any serious trouble he remained mentally unstable and was in and out of the workhouse. It seems however that he may have returned to selling boots and shoes, perhaps with his brother John, as we know that he and his family lived in St Austell.

Cecil Dench died in St Austell in 1951 aged 82.

Final Thoughts

Despite the bullying he received at the hands of the boys in St Blazey and the ridicule and maligning in the newspapers at the time of the siege I think that it is fair to say that Cecil was not without friends and allies. Several members of his community tried to speak with him and help him, bring him cups of tea and offer him kindness while the chaos was unfolding. They weren’t afraid of him, suggesting that his violent behaviour in April 1909 was out of character and perhaps driven by fear. It is also clear that his family loved and tried to protect him.

The postcard above, printed in his home town of St Blazey sometime after 1909, almost seems to position him as a sort of folk hero. They don’t call him a madman but “the man who defied the police”. In later years much was made of Cecil asserting his right as an Englishman to “protect his home and his castle”, but I can’t help but wonder whether Cecil would have liked all the attention. What would he have thought about his image being sold as a souvenir?

Cecil Dench was an unwell man who was pushed beyond his breaking point by the brutal, bullying behaviour of others. And sadly his actions had terrible consequences. It cost him his liberty and his friend his hand. It seems clear that his mother had tried her best, perhaps unwisely, to keep him from returning to the asylum again but she couldn’t keep him safe from the cruelty of others or from his own mental illness.

Let’s hope he found some peace in his final years.

Further Reading

The Amazing Feats of Cornwall’s Wheelbarrow Men

St Nonna’s Well & a 17th century Cure for Madness

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