Percy Bexon - Saltley Reformatory Inmate
| No. in Admissions Register: | 1155 |
| Age: | 15 (born 1 March 1882) |
| Whence received: | Burton on Trent Petty Sessions |
| Description: | |
| Complexion: | Fresh |
| Hair colour: | Light |
| Eyes colour: | Mottled grey |
| Height: | 4 ft 11¼ ins |
| Particular marks: | 2 clear vacc. marks left arm; small scar centre forehead |
| State of health: | Good |
| Able-bodied? | Yes |
| Date of admission: | 24 April 1897 |
| Late residence: | No fixed residence |
| Parish he belongs to: | Not known |
| Customary work and mode of life: | Father and mother are habitual tramps. Boy has had no settled home. Appears acquainted with almost every town in England |
| Whether illegitimate: | - |
| State of education: | |
| Reads: | Not at all |
| Writes: | Not at all |
| Offence: | Stealing a tricycle |
| Circumstances which may have led to it: | Parental neglect |
| Date of sentence, by whom and court: | 2 April 1897; J R Morris; Burton on Trent |
| Where imprisoned: | Was remanded to the workhouse and absconded from there. Afterwards arrested by Derby police for stealing |
| Sentence: | Detained at Saltley until the age of 19 years old |
| Previous committals: | |
| Number: | 1 (9 February 1896) |
| Length: | 4 days in prison |
| For what: | Stealing an overcoat |
| Father's name: | Frank Bexon |
| Occupation: | Tramping shotmaker |
| Mother's name: | Emma Bexon |
| Occupation: | - |
| Parents dead? | Neither |
| Survivor married again? | - |
| Parents' treatment of child: | Bad |
| Character of parents | Bad |
| Parents' wages: | Unknown |
| Amount parents agree to pay: | - |
| Parents address: | Unknown, c/o Mrs angle, New model Lodging House, Bath Street, Ilkeston |
| Superintendent of police (to collect payments): | - |
| Person making this return: | Superintendent Beckton, Burton |
| Notes: | |
| 8 Aprilc 1897 The crime that sent him to Saltley was heard in two stages. The first was reported in the Burton Telegraph Thursday 8 April 1897 p.7 col.1: THEFT OF A TRICYCLE. - Percy Bexon, a lad fifteen years of age, and a native of Cardiff, who stated that his parents had run away and left him in a Fleet Street lodging house, was charged with stealing a tricycle, value 30s., the property of John Foster, grocer's assistant of Cross Street, on the 22nd March. - Prosecutor stated that he left the machine in the Staffordshire Knos Yard on the evening of the 22nd March. From what was said to him by a friend he visited the yard the next morning and found that the tricycle had been removed. He gave information to the police, and next saw the machine in their possession. - Henry Battain deposed to giving prisoner 1s. 6d. for the machine, which he afterwards handed over to the police. - Police-constable Fisher deposed to arresting prisoner on the 16th March, and charging him with the theft. He replied "Yes: I stole it." - The boy, who pleaded with the magistrates to send him to a training ship, was committed to the workhouse for fourteen days, and ordered to be subsequently sent to a reformatory for four years. | |
| 23 April 1897 The second stage was reported in the Derby Daily Telegraph Friday 23 April 1897 p.3 col.3: AN INCORRIGIBLE YOUTH. - Percy Bexon (15), a rag and bone collector, of no fixed abode, was charged on remand with stealing a melodeon, value 12s. 6d.. the property of James Hall, farm servant, at Allestree, on the 9th inst. - Mr. Whiston said that on the 2nd of this month the prisoner was convicted at Burton-on- Trent for stealing a bicycle, and sent to the workhouse for 14 days, after which he had to be sent to a reformatory. He got away from the workhouse after being there a day or so, and the Burton police could not find him again. He was found in Derby with the melodeon. - The prisoner said his parents had left him. He had travelled about the country all his life. The Bench discharged him on this charge, and he will be sent to a reformatory for stealing the bicycle. | |
| 13 December 1898 Absconded from the farm at the Reformatory | |
| 11 May 1899 Having been apprehended in Cardiff, returned to the Reformatory | |
| 18 February 1901 Sentence expired, discharged from Saltley, enlisted in the West Kent Regiment, shoemaker | |
| 13 August 1901 The Reformatory Committee Log Book report records receipt of a letter from Bexon, Maidstone | |
| 10 December 1901 The Log Book report records receipt of a letter from Bexon, Folkstone | |
| 15 July 1902 The Log Book report records receipt of a letter from Bexon, South Africa [the Boer War had just ended in May] | |
