1903 was a bad year....

[muffett.2008]

How unlucky can you be, this page from my Rifle Range Research file.
What type of firearm? I think M.E
Attachment 39693

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[Patrick Chadwick]

Read the report carefully. If basic safety rules are followed, there is no such thing as an "accidental discharge" of a rifle that causes a fatality to a bystander. At the moment the rifle was loaded it should have been at the firing point, pointing downrange. With no-one standing in front. So that even if the rifle was defective, and did indeed produce an accidental discharge (slam fire? safety-off fire?) it would not have been possible for the projectile to cause injury to a bystander.

The sergeant was extremely negligent, and as the shot struck TWO persons, that suggests that far from pointing downrange, the rifle was, in fact, pointing back towards a group of people. Furthermore, it is clearly stated that the deceased was standing behind the sergeant. And I doubt that the above-mentioned basic safety rules are a new invention.

Cover-ups are not a modern invention.

[muffett.2008]

By today's standards, this man would be locked up for a long time, soldier or not.
The carry position was over the shoulder, but the rifle still should have not been loaded until on the firing point.
My thoughts are M.E although the Long Lee was in use at the time, Tpr. Lonsdale would have used one in the Boar War, strangely enough I knew both families, what the article does not say is that he left a wife and two children fatherless, I grew up with the grandkids.

[Patrick Chadwick]

The carry position was over the shoulder...

.. in which position, the accident could not have happened, even if the rifle was loaded. The absolute No.1 safety rule is "NEVER point a weapon at another person." NEVER means "even if you are convinced that it is unloaded". And "point" does not mean "deliberately aim at", it means "holding the rifle in such a position that another person is in the line of fire".

If someone wishes to take a look down the barrel of one of my rifles, I remove the bolt, look through the barrel from the breech end to make sure that it is clear, and then hand him the rifle, muzzle up. If it is a rifle where the view down the barrel from the breech end is obscured (M-H, Snider etc) then I first pass a cleaning rod down the barrel until the end appears in the breech, to demonstrate that the barrel is clear.

In muzzle-loader competitions, where the rifle is loaded (but NOT capped) behind the firing point, the rule is still: muzzle up until you are on the firing point, and then lower the muzzle to point the rifle down range.

This safety rule is so fundamental that ignoring it will get you instantly warned or even chucked off the range. The perpetrator in 1903 had no excuse whatsoever for what happened.

[muffett.2008]

Exept that the rules for military range practices in 1903 were totally different than what we use today,