Robert Pate was born on Christmas Day, 1819, in Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, the son of Robert Francis Pate, a wealthy corn dealer and Maria.
16 Facts About Robert Pate
1.
2.
Robert Pate's parents married in Cambridge on 16 March 1818.
3.
Robert Pate's father came from humble origins, but through trade became a gentleman and eventually Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1847.
4.
Gazetted 'Cornet Robert Pate to be Lieutenant, by purchase, vice Williams.
5.
In 1844 while on a tour of duty in Ireland, his horses including his favourite, and his dog were put down because of rabies, and Pate began to show signs of lunacy.
6.
Robert Pate resigned his commission in March 1846 and took up residence in Piccadilly, London, where he lived the life of a recluse.
7.
Robert Pate took frequent walks in the royal parks, where his dandy clothing and strange behaviour drew attention.
8.
About 6:20 that evening, her carriage was leaving the courtyard when Robert Pate hit her on the head with the short feruled cane that he was carrying.
9.
Robert Pate was immediately arrested by sergeant James Silver and taken to Vine Street police station; later he was held at Newgate prison.
10.
Robert Pate was put on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
11.
Robert Pate was charged with three indictments; firstly unlawfully and maliciously striking the Queen, secondly with alarming the Queen, and thirdly with breach of the peace.
12.
Robert Pate was sentenced to seven years of penal transportation, which his father thought a better result than the ignominy of imprisonment in the UK accompanied by a birching, even though that was a nominally lesser sentence.
13.
Robert Pate's class ensured that he received lenient treatment in prison and on the subsequent journey as one of 261 convicts on the William Jardine departing on 9 August 1850 to Van Diemen's Land where he arrived on 14 November 1850.
14.
Robert Pate served less than a year under what for him must have been an especially hard regime, and was then transferred to more amenable work in the community until the end of his sentence.
15.
However, his money problems were solved the following year when Robert Pate married Mary Elizabeth Brown, a rich heiress.
16.
Robert Pate lived a quiet life in the capital until his death in 1895 at which time he was living at Broughton, Ross Road, South Norwood.