TIME
November 16, 1936 12:00 AM GMT-5
Erect, white-mustached General Sir Bindon Blood was last week appointed Chief of the Royal Corps of Engineers by King Edward, who thereby revived a Stuart office which lapsed in 1802.† Informed of his new job Sir Bindon remarked, “I was too old to go to France when I was 72 at the outbreak of war, but I am glad that I can be of service to my country now that I am nearly 94.”
At King Edward’s Coronation next May Sir Bindon Blood in his new role will be within not many arm’s lengths of the famed Crown Jewels which his ancestor Colonel Thomas Blood, son of a well-to-do Irish blacksmith, succeeded in stealing from the Tower of London in 1671. With the help of two accomplices Colonel Blood overpowered the Keeper of the Regalia, hid the crown under his cloak. One of his friends seized the sceptre while the other stuffed the orb into his breeches. Before they had gone far the thieves were captured. Blood refused to confess to anyone but King Charles II. Charles not only pardoned Blood but gave him back his estates which had been confiscated. Some historians think that Charles, who could always use a little ready cash, would have been pleased to see the Crown Jewels “disappear,” provided that they should emerge later in a more useful form.
†Though Sir Bindon’s new post is practically a sinecure,his early predecessors supervised the design, constructionand inspection of national fortifications, were in charge of Royal Artillery and ammunition.
ncG1vNJzZmismaKyb6%2FOpmaaqpOdtrexjm9ubm5haX1wss6rnKKfnmK7psPSZpynn5mjsqa%2BjK2fop2WZA%3D%3D