Daily Express – Wednesday 22 March 1967
So incensed was Malcolm Stuart by a dirty railway carriage that his anger erupted into a storm in a British Railways teacup.
Out of the window went cups and saucers that littered the carriage floor along with cigarette ends.
“All the years of frustration about delays and dirty trains welled up inside me,” he explained at Guildhall (London) Magistrates Court yesterday. “I know it was a silly thing to do, but I wanted to make a protest.
The delay
“What made matters worse was that the only other occupants of the compartment were a Dutch couple and a German couple. I thought it was dreadful that they should see this sort of thing in a train which was supposed to have been cleaned.”
It was when Mr. Stuart went to Liverpool Street station to catch the 8.10 boat train to Harwich that his cup brewed over. First, he said, there was a 20-minute wait to board the train – and an inspector said the delay was because the train was being cleaned.
Then in a compartment among the ticket stubs, he saw three cups and saucers with tea slopping inside them.
Angry Mr. Stuart asked a porter to do something about it. The answer was that it was the job of the restaurant car staff to remove tea-cups. A protest just brought a shrug of the shoulders from the porter.
The cost
So Mr. Stuart, 29-year-old research journalist of Courtlands Avenue, Lee Green, London, said he himself would remove the cups – and started dropping them from the window.
The protest cost him a £3 fine for wilfully damaging two teacups and saucers, and £2 for not giving his name and address to a railway policeman. He was ordered to pay for the crockery, worth 6s. 1d.
- An Eastern Region official explained last night that there are three levels of cleaning. “A” allows for sweeping inside the carriages and servicing the toilet. “B” allows for brasses to be cleaned in addition. “C” is a very thorough job all round.