C.T.W.

Yesterday I was reading once more one of my favourite poems - The Ballad of Reading Gaol (for our American friends Reading is pronounced Redding) by the great Oscar Wilde and I wondered how many people know that it was based on a true story.

 

In Reading gaol by Reading town
There is a pit of shame,
And in it lies a wretched man
Eaten by teeth of flame,
In burning winding-sheet he lies,
And his grave has got no name.

Oscar Wilde was in Reading Gaol at the same time as the man concerned and, on release from prison, wrote the poem and dedicated it thus:-

In Memorium
C.T.W.
Sometime Trooper of The Royal Horse Guards
7th July 1896.

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.
I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellow's got to swing."

This is the story of C.T.W.

Charles Thomas Wooldridge was a 30-year-old soldier serving in the Royal Horse Guards and  he was stationed at Regent's Park barracks, London. He was married but the marriage was a stormy one and although he loved his wife dearly he was an extremely jealous man. His wife was living in the village of Clewar, near Windsor. They met whenever they could but the forced separation of army life  put an inevitable strain on their relationship.

By March 1896 his wife had decided to start using her maiden name again and  she was seeing other men.  She continued to meet her husband and during one of their meetings, Wooldridge struck her.

On 27th March she requested her husband to sign a document undertaking not to molest her further. They had arranged to meet later that day outside Regent's Park barracks and, when she failed to turn up, Wooldridge became highly agitated. He told the sentry on duty that he was going to Windsor to find her also saying ~ 'I'm going to do some damage.'

His wife's neighbours, alarmed by screams, rushed from their homes to find Wooldridge standing in the street over his wife's body.  Her throat had been cut. He made no attempt to escape. When he was arrested he told the officer 'Take me! I have killed my wife.'

At his trial the jury took just two minutes to find him guilty, despite his attempts to get the charge reduced to manslaughter because of his wife's unfaithfulness. He was sentenced to death and was hanged at Reading Gaol on 7th July 1896. He passed into immortality as the subject of the well known poem. 

"And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

If anyone wishes to read the complete poem which is very descriptive and conjours up strong images  of what prison life was like and also what Wilde's own thoughts were on this man,  then visit:-

The Ballad Of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde