Bid to brand throne claimant mad

Shropshire's Anthony Hall claimed to be Henry Vlll's descendant

An ex-policeman who claimed to be an heir to the throne prompted enquiries to see if he could be certified insane, previously secret files have revealed.

Shropshire's Anthony Hall made speeches in the 1930s on his claim as the 11th male descendent of Henry VIII.

He was repeatedly arrested for use of "scandalous language" after speeches in Birmingham's Bull Ring, and was fined and bound over to keep the peace.

Details of the bids to silence him were revealed publicly on Friday.

Mr Hall challenged King George V to fight him, in court, for the right to the crown with the loser having "his head lopped off".

In June 1931 he issued a pamphlet, Open Letter to King George V, setting out his claim and his intentions, as King, to write off the national debt, create full employment and ensure free health care for all.

His Majesty quite agrees that a stop should be put to his effusions Sir Clive Wigram, King's Private Secretary (1931)

He would do all this alone, having abolished the government, and without claiming taxes from his subjects for the upkeep of his family.

But files released by the National Archives show his activities inspired correspondence at the highest level.

Mr Hall was known to the police having resigned from the Shropshire force in 1927 in uncertain circumstances.

The King's Private Secretary, Sir Clive Wigram, wrote in 1931: "His Majesty quite agrees that a stop should be put to his effusions but feels that it might not look very well for a man who is obviously demented to get six months imprisonment.

"Would it not be possible to keep him under observation with a view to his final detention in an institution, without actually putting him in prison."

'Not insane'

But a letter from Sir John Anderson at the Home Office explained that while Mr Hall was "eccentric and wrong-headed, he is not so obviously demented or insane that he could be dealt with without recourse to court proceedings".

Palace hopes of Mr Hall being written off as a lunatic were dashed when Mr Hall was examined by Dr Walter R Jordan, an "expert in lunacy", and Dr Hamblin Smith, prison doctor at Birmingham Prison, the records show.

While both thought his ideas outlandish, neither man was able to find clear evidence of his insanity.

Dr Smith said that "although sanguine" Mr Hall's schemes for paying off the national debt "do not appear, so far as I have yet ascertained, to be insane".

The intervention of World War II put an end to his claim to the throne. He died, still a commoner, in 1947.