Note 37 — Chapter XVII · THE “ALABAMA” CLAIMS.

The boy was said to be a nephew of Feargus O’Connor, and was a clerk in an oil-shop in the Borough. He had tried to reach the Queen’s carriage on Thanksgiving Day, but the density of the crowd prevented him. O’Connor, curiously enough, was not a Fenian or a Catholic, but a Protestant youth who had turned crazy by reading “penny dreadfuls.” In April he was tried and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and twenty strokes with the birch. The Queen, who had long been desirous of bestowing medals for long and faithful domestic service in her employment, found in the attack by O’Connor an opportunity for carrying out her idea. Her personal attendants were Highland gillies from her Aberdeenshire estates. They had been most active in protecting her when she was menaced by O’Connor, and on John Brown, who had been more prominent than the others, her Majesty conferred this gold medal and an annuity of £25. Brown had been the Prince Consort’s favourite gillie, and, though his rough Northern manners were somewhat unprepossessing, his personal courage, stolid fidelity, shrewd judgment, and blunt honesty of speech, had rendered him a great favourite in the Queen’s family.