(an officer of 29 years' service), Capt. Colthurst (16 years' service) and a junior officer, Lieut. Brown.
We were ordered all three to be removed "under guard" to the front room and to be shot if we stirred, while they searched the house. This was done: Soldiers with leveled rifles knelt outside the house ready to fire upon us, and inside we were closely guarded by men with drawn bayonets. This lasted over three hours. The house was completely sacked and everything of any value removed — books, pictures, souvenirs, toys, linen, and household goods. I could hear the officers jeering as they turned over my private possessions. One of the soldiers (a Belfast man) seemed ashamed, and said, "I didn't enlist for this. They are taking the whole bloomin' house with them." They commandeered a motor car in which were women, and made them drive to the Barracks with the stuff—ordering the men to keep a safe distance "in case of firing." They left an armed guard on the house all night. Colthurst brought my husband's keys, stolen from his dead body, and opened his study (which he always kept locked). All my private letters, letters from my husband to me before our marriage, his articles, a manuscript play, the labor of a lifetime, were taken. After endless application I received back a small part of these, but most of my most cherished possessions have never been returned, or any attempt made to find them.
The regiment took with them to Belfast as a "souvenir," my husband's stick, and an officer stole from his dead body my husband's "Votes for Women" badge. For days my house was open to any marauder, as none dared to come even to board up my windows. Capt. Colthurst later falsely endorsed certain papers found on my husband's body.
On Monday, May 1st, another raid was made during my absence, and this time a little temporary maid was taken under soldiers' guard to the Barracks. She was detained in custody for a week, the only charge against her being that she was found in my house. Why I was not taken, I never knew, but one of the officers (Leslie Wilson) publicly regretted "that they had not shot Mrs. Skeffington while they were about it." It would have saved them (and me) much trouble if they had. Colthurst continued in charge of raiding parties for several days.
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