Westminster Chess Club Papers - v4 (1871) p152/166

At Hitchin Petty Sessions, Edward Pindar, teacher of languages, was brought up and charged with wounding with intent to murder Miss Augusta Wiles, of Walsworth-road, Hitchin. —Miss Wiles, on being sworn, said she had been receiving, for some time previous to the offence, lessons in French of [sic] the prisoner. On Wednesday, the 7th November, he attended at her house as usual to give a French lesson. Shortly after the lesson had begun the prisoner asked the complainant if she would consent to marry him. Miss Wiles replied that that was impossible, and told him to go on with the lesson. The prisoner then, making some further remarks, took an ordinary knife from his pocket and at once commenced a most savage attack upon her. A struggle took place, during which witness received four stabs at the back of the head and three others about the face and one in the breast. Whilst the prisoner was inflicting the wounds about the head and face, he seized hold of witness’s hair and tore out a large tuft. In her endeavours to wrest the knife from prisoner witness receeived [sic] a wound in the palm of the hand. Whilst prisoner was endeavouring to stab witness the blade of the knife closed and severely cut his hand, and she eventually succeeded in getting it away from him. He afterwards savagely struck witness in the eyes with his fists, blackening both of them, and then left the house. —In answer to questions put by the prisoner, witness denied that she had ever consented to marry him or that she had ever given him any reason to suppose she would do so. - Mr. R. R. Shillitoe, surgeon, Hitchin, described the condition of Miss Wiles after the attack. The wounds were of a very severe character, and there was danger of erysipelas setting in. The wound in the hand was very near the palmar artery. —Selina King, servant to Miss Wiles, said she heard the struggle going on, but was so alarmed that she dared not go near.—lnspector Young deposed that about midday the prisoner, Edward Pindar, came to the police-station and said he desired to give himself up for an assault which he had committed upon Miss Wiles. His hands were bleeding and covered with blood, and hair was sticking to his fingers. Witness asked him why he had assaulted Miss Wiles, and he replied that he did not think he should be required to answer that question. Witness then went to Miss Wiles’ house and found the statement of the prisoner was correct. The room in which the encounter had taken place was in great confusion; the furniture was all out of place, a flower stand had been dashed to the ground, there was a pool of blood on the floor, and also a quantity of human hair saturated with blood. He found that Mr. Gainsford had come to the assistance of Miss Wiles, and that Mr. Shillitoe had been sent for. —This was all the evidence. The prisoner said that he committed the act under intense excitement and great exasperation. The prisoner was then remanded, but Thursday week he was brought before Mr. Dashwood and fully committed for trial for wounding with intent to murder. He will be tried at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, during the December sessions.>

<After his committal (says a contemporary) the prisoner was again removed to the Hitchin Police-station, and appeared to be in his usual state of mind although somewhat anxious and depressed. Indeed, this has been his condition since the last examination when he appeared to realize more fully the serious position in which he stood, and that the full penalty of the offence with which he was charged was penal servitude for life. It is probable he would have been taken at once to Hertford after his committal had he not expressed a wish to see Mr. Grellet, his medical attendant. He was, therefore, kept at Hitchin for that purpose, and we understand during Thursday evening he was more resigned than before his committal. In fact, as far has been observed, he has shown no signs of mental aberration at any time since his arrest. He was informed by Inspector Young on Friday morning that he was about to be removed to Hertford Gaol, and after some remark requested that he might have a good breakfast before he started. This was provided, and consisted of bread and two slices of bacon. Mrs. Young carried the meal to him in his cell and placed it on a table before him. He seemed at that time to be in his ordinary state of mind and asked her to give him a piece of toast. She left for the purpose of getting this and he appeared at that time to begin his breakfast. On her return she was horrified to find him kneeling before the fire hacking at his throat with a knife (a rather blunt one) that had been given to him to cut the bacon with. It seemed as though, having determined to take his life, he had kneeled down before committing the deed. Mrs. Young gave the alarm and Mr. Young came and endeavoured to stanch the blood, while Mr. Grellet was at once sent for. So quietly had all this been done that even the prisoner in the next cell was unaware of what was going on until he heard Mrs. Young call for help. Mr. Grellet was almost instantly in attendance, and when he arrived the unhappy man was still on his knees and being supported by Mr. Young. He was then placed on his pallet and his injuries examined. It was found that he had cut a deep jagged flesh wound, four inches in length, beginning near the ear and extending close to the carotid artery and just escaping the windpipe. He had lost a large quantity of blood. After the wound had been dressed by Mr. Grellet prisoner appeared tolerably calm, although somewhat blanched from loss of blood. He is in no immediate danger.>

At the Central Criminal Court, London, Edward Pindar, 49, tutor, has been indicted for having feloniously wounded Augusta Willes [sic], a daughter of the late rector of Hitchin. Mr. Horace Avory conducted the prosecution: the prisoner waa not defended. The prisoner had been engaged at Hitchin as a teacher of languages, and amongst his pupils was the prosecutrix, to whom he had apparently become attached. In consequence of her refusal to marry him he made a violent attack upon her with a knife, not, as he alleged, for the purpose of killing her, but with the intention of disfiguring her. — The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and Mr. Justice Manisty passed sentence of five years’ penal servitude.>

If he <grew up in what is now Estonia and returned there in later life.>, perhaps <hemy> knows more. And there's this book.

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I'm a little unsure, but can someone explain the (f) notation?

Harding-Blackburne-p522.

I will submit all Pindar's match games with Blackburne, as collected by Harding.

By 1873, Pindar was back in Britain, as evidenced by his winning an East Anglian tournament in November.