Wharfinger: Royal Observatory bomb, 1894

By Giles Broadbent on January 26, 2010 3:36 PM |

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In what may be considered the first international terrorist incident, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich became the unlikely target of a bomber.

Anarchists had been looking to wage war for years but attacks were mostly confined to mainland Europe, particularly France.

But that changed on the afternoon of February 15, 1894, when Mr Thackeray and Mr Hollis in the Lower Computing Room of the Royal Observatory, heard a "sharp and clear detonation, followed by a noise like a shell going through the air".

The genteel air of the Observatory was shattered and park crowds soon circled a figure who appeared to be crouching.

The park warden seized the man. His hand was missing and there was a gaping hole in his stomach. He died minutes later without saying a word casting no light on the mystery of his motives.

He was later named as Frenchman Martial Bourdin, 26, connected to Club Autonmie in London, a hive of anarchist activity. Despite investigations no-one could say what provoked an attack on such a low-level target.

The incident, however, inspired Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and was used by Alfred Hitchcock in Sabotage.