Page 50 - Top Cover Issue 10

50 TOP COVER ISSUE 10

HISTORY

First known police firearms training The Tottenham Outrage. An armed Sergeants Charles Tucker and Robert Webley & Scott .32 calibre M.P. model
fatal accident. Sergeant Neil robbery takes place at Tottenham in Bentley and Constable Walter Choate self-loading pistols are adopted by
MacDonald (Met) is killed when he is North London during which Constable (City of London) are shot and killed the City of London Police and by
accidentally shot in the neck during William Tyler (Met) and a young boy by armed burglars caught in the act Northallerton Police in Yorkshire.
revolver practice. are shot and killed. The two killers of breaking into a jewellers shop in Webley & Scott .22 calibre training
commit suicide. Hounsditch. pistols are acquired by the Met and by
Two pistols (believed to be Colt Northallerton Police in Yorkshire.
Model 1903 .32 calibre self-loading Inspector Arthur Walls
pistols (left)) are purchased by Met (Eastbourne Borough) is shot and killed
Special Branch to replace outdated responding to a call that a burglar is
weapons for use in connection with the hiding on the roof of the front porch
protection of King Edward VII.238 of a house. This will become known
Constable Charles Alger (Great as The Hooded Man Case because the
Yarmouth Borough) is shot and killed suspect, John Williams (a.k.a. George
after being sent to deal with a man, MacKay), is taken to court with his
Thomas Allen, who is assaulting head covered. The case proves to be
his wife. He is shot with a sawn-off controversial because of the police
shotgun as he enters the garden. Allen use of an informant, Edgar Power, and
is sentenced to death but is reprieved the reliance placed by the prosecution
on the grounds of insanity and sent to on a statement implicating Williams
Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum made by his girlfriend, Florence
where he will die in 1920. Seymour, which she retracts in court.
Nevertheless Williams is convicted of
murder and executed at Lewes in 1913.

1901 1909 1910 1912

1902 1903 1911

All officers joining the Met in future are Constable William Wilkinson The Siege of Sidney Street. Following the attempted burglary and the fatal shooting
to be given instruction in how to load (Leicestershire) is shot and killed. Two of three police officers in Houndsditch as above, two men are traced to an address in
and unload the force-issue handgun. local men, Thomas Porter and Thomas Sidney Street and a siege develops. Twenty men of the 1st Battalion, Scots Guards,
Preston, have a grudge against the are called to assist and the building catches fire. The two men are killed.
police. Wilkinson is patrolling the During a major strike the Head Constable of Liverpool City police, Leonard
centre of Sileby during the night when Dunning, calls for assistance from surrounding forces and soldiers are drafted in to
he hears a noise in a graveyard. The help keep the peace. A riot breaks out after a rally at St. Georges Plateau with scuffles
men are laying in wait for him and he is between police and strikers. A number of rioters are arrested and convicted of being
shot with a shotgun. Both are executed concerned in the riot. As they are being taken to Walton prison, with an escort
at Leicester prison. provided by a cavalry unit from the 18th Hussars, bricks and bottles are thrown at
The Pistols Act regulates the sale the soldiers who fire into the crowd. Two men are killed.
and use of pistols. Generally considered Webley & Scott .32 calibre M.P. model self-loading pistols are adopted by the Met,
to be the first substantive measure Nottinghamshire County Constabulary and the Borough of Leicester.
of ‘gun control’ in Great Britain. The The Chief Constable of Coventry Constabulary buys a Webley & Scott .22 calibre
purchaser of a pistol must either hold ‘Target Model’ pistol.
a Gun or Game Licence granted under The first instructions are issued on when Met officers in the Dockyards and
the Gun Licence Act 1870 or, being a any other place where police are protecting property can use their firearms. This
householder, proposes to use such includes a ‘Halt. Who goes there?’ challenge.
pistol only in his own house or the Rules and Regulations are approved by the Watch Committee for the guidance of
curtilage thereof or is about to proceed officers who may be called upon to use firearms in the Borough of Leicester.
abroad for a period of not less than
six months. It becomes illegal to sell a
pistol to someone who is drunk or of
unsound mind.