an unarmed teenager. Vane had been directed to take command of Portobello Barracks defences, Dublin, then garrison for the largely Belfast-recruited Royal Irish Rifles and the Ulster Militia Battalion. On the third day of the Rising, Vane had taken up an observation position in the tower of the Rathmines Town Hall. On returning to barracks he learned that civilian hostages had been taken and later killed there by order of Captain Bowen-Colthurst. They included the well-known pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and two pro-Union journalists who were misidentified as Nationalists. Bowen-Colthurst had also led a raid against a house allegedly sympathetic to the insurgents, and during this raid he had summarily executed a youth named Coade in the street. Vane ordered these incidents to be reported to the garrison high command and to British high command. But his superiors covered up the crimes, and removed him from command. Thereupon Vane went directly to London and met with Secretary of War Lord Kitchener and with Maurice Bonham Carter, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, to expose the murders.<ref name = "Commons">British House of Commons, [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/aug/01/sir-francis-vanes-position#S5CV0085P0_19160801_HOC_23 Disturbances in Ireland"], hearing held on 1 August 1916 (accessed 31 March 2016).</ref> As a result, Bowen-Colthurst was arrested a week after the uprising, and was charged with murder at a military court-martial held a month after the uprising. The court-martial found Bowen-Colthurst guilty, but insane; he was sent to Broadmoor Hospital for the criminally insane. Nevertheless, Vane's superior Sir John Maxwell filed an adverse report about Vane, resulting in Vane's dismissal from the army sometime prior to August 1916. Between military stintsDaily News, Manchester Guardian, Westminster and Truth employed Vane from 1902 to 1904 as a reporter for South Africa. He was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate for Burton in the 1906 United Kingdom general election. Following that he became active in antiwar and suffragette campaigns from 1907-1912. He published two more items: Walks and Peoples in Tuscany (1908) and On Certain Fundamentals (1909). Scouting By 1909, Vane was the Boy Scouts' London Commissioner. He felt that Scouting should be nonmilitary and, through mediation, has reconciled the British Boy Scouts (BBS) with Baden-Powell's organisation (the BBS had formed as the Battersea Boy Scouts and had originally registered with Baden-Powell's organisation but left over perceived militarisation and the nondemocratic nature of the national headquarters). Vane pushed for the Boy Scouts to be more democratic, but his position was