03 May 1945, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
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Death of Norman Charles Barber, merchant of Loxley and Co., at the age of 46.
He was the husband of M. C. Barber. For the circumstances of his death see Barbara Anslow's diary entry for today.
The proceedings in the trial before a Camp Disciplinary Tribunal of Dr. Harry Talbot come to an end today. He is accused of refusing to return a hen belonging Mrs. L. Flaherty on April 7. The case had gone to arbitration and he'd been told to return the hen on being given 100MY for his services in looking after it for its owner. According to George Wright-Nooth, Talbot's lawyer, at the height of proceedings, stood up to make a dramatic announcement:
My Lord, I regret to inform you that my client ate the chicken last night.
The tribunal - E. S. Brooks, G. A. Pentreath and A. Raymond - express their disapproval of his 'very reprehensible' conduct in strong terms and hand out the toughest sentence in their power: two week's deprivation of canteen privileges.
Sources:
George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 217
MacNider papers: Unheaded sheet.
Note: MacNider's account doesn't mention a lawyer. It seems the original hearing was April 19. Emily Hahn gives a fictionalised account of the incident in Miss Jill (1948). The novel has Talbot ('Lionel Levy') looking after the hen because Mrs Flaherty ('Hawkins') is in prison for black market activities (254-258). Wright-Nooth's account is humorous, while Hahn's is much darker.
