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The paragraphs below are excerpts from an article, with added updates, published in the South Wales Weekly News, Saturday 28th November 1903.
newspapers.library.wales/view/3415618/3415624/176/



A great sensation was caused in the Bank of England, about half-past 12 on Tuesday, by the firing of a loaded revolver by a young man who had entered by the library. As the man appeared to be about to continue his indiscriminate firing the officials of the Bank promptly overpowered the man and disarmed him.

Police officers were called in, and the man was promptly removed to Cloak-lane Police Station. Here he gave his name as George Frederick Robinson, aged about 30, and stated that he came from the East End. The man's speech was so incoherent and his actions so strange that the police authorities called in a doctor, who certified him to be a lunatic.

An Exchange Telegraph Company's message on Tuesday afternoon says: - The man who has been arrested for firing a revolver in the Bank of England lies unconscious on the stretcher at Cloak-lane Station. He is a well-dressed man with black wavy hair, and at the time he entered the bank he was wearing a dark overcoat and a black bowler hat.

The man Robinson has not yet given any detailed account of himself, but it is understood that he has lived on the Gold Coast, West Africa.

It is stated that Robinson left home when 16 years of age. He subsequently went to Klondyke in search of gold. When the Boer War broke out he joined the 2nd Canadian Rifles, and was sent to South Africa, where he was present at several engagements. Robinson returned to England about five months ago. It is alleged that in a box at his lodgings the police found 44 cartridges..

Here are his service documents...…

www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-...aspx?IdNumber=11998&

Mike

His trial was the following month, widely covered in newspapers around the country. This report is from The Gloucester Citizen, Thursday, 17th December 1903.

"At the Old Bailey on Thursday, George Frederick Robinson (27), described as an engineer, was indicted for shooting at Mr. Kenneth Grahame, Secretary of the Bank of England, and George Tolmie, head waiter at the Bank, with intent to murder them, and also with attempting to discharge a loaded firearm at two detectives. Prisoner pleaded guilty.

Counsel narrated the facts of the case, which are well known, and said no doubt the jury would accept the opinion of a number of medical men that at the time prisoner committed the act he was of unsound mind.

Evidence as to the scene at the Bank was given, and a detective stated that he found one of the revolver cartridges filled with some candle grease and gold.

Justice Darling: Were any of the other cartridges loaded with gold?

The Detective: They had been discharged.

Counsel for the Bank: So far as we believe they were.

Medical evidence showed that the accused was insane, and Dr. Scott, of Brixton Prison, replying to the Judge, said accused might recover after a time.

The jury found prisoner was insane at the time he committed the act, and he was ordered to be detained during the King's pleasure.

Counsel for the defence said he was desired by the relatives to state that Robinson had experienced considerable hardship at Klondyke, where he was bitten very severely by a dog, which incapacitated him from work. Subsequently he served with the Canadian Rifles in the South African war, and afterwards went to West Africa. He was seized with three severe attacks of malarial fever, and an attack of sunstroke, which utterly shattered his health. His relatives were people of the very highest respectability.

The Judge expressed the hope that in time Robinson might be in a fit condition to be restored to his friends, and to a career of usefulness."

* Five years later, Kenneth Grahame had a book titled 'The Wind in the Willows' published. The man that Robinson shot at, and missed, was to become the creator of Toad, Ratty and Mole.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Grahame

What an amazing story. Thank you Berenice and Mike for filling in some of the detail.

Found this article on the life of Kenneth Grahame, with some references to George Robinson, "a Socialist Lunatic."
www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate...n-the-wild-wood.html

Adding to the details found by Berenice

This is a detailed report of what happened in the bank from The County Observer And Monmouthshire Advertiser , Saturday , November 28 1903

This is the detailed court case before being committed to trial from The Record and Advertiser , Friday, December 4 1903