Bombers, Rioters and Police Killers

Civil disorder, violent crime and terrorism were all considerably worse during the Victorian period than they are today, though ironically many regard this era of British history as a being a by-word for stability and order. Simon Webb reveals the disorder and violent crime endemic in Victorian Britain; a time when the citizens faced problems eerily similar to those with which we have to contend today.
Whether a rise in armed robberies and muggings; debates about the arming of the police; bag searches due to fears about terrorists planting bombs in museums and railway stations; or anxiety about the rioting on the streets of our cities; our Victorian ancestors faced precisely the same difficulties well over a century ago.

• Attacks on Police Officers: Between 2003 and 2013 not a single Metropolitan police officer was murdered, yet during a typical decade in the Victorian period, 1860 to 1870, nine officers were shot, stabbed or beaten to death in London.

• Victorian Gun Crime: So prevalent was the use of guns by criminals in Victorian Britain, that officers were routinely armed. The sight of a police constable with a revolver at his hip was a common one during the 1880s and 1890s.

• Terrorism: Bombs had exploded on the London Underground in 1883 and 1885, and the first death in a tube bombing occurred in 1897.


The first death in a bombing on the London Underground took place as early as 1897, when anarchists set off a charge of dynamite in a train at Aldersgate Station; killing Harry Pitt from Tottenham.

The greatest death toll in a terrorist bombing in England before the 7/7 attacks of 2005, was in 1867; when fifteen men, women and children were killed after a quarter of a ton of explosives were detonated in central London.

The first police officer to be killed in a riot in England, died in London in 1833, after being stabbed to death during a political demonstration. The murder of police officers during riots and street disturbances was a regular event in Victorian Britain.

The use of firearms by and against the police was far more prevalent during the nineteenth century than it is now. For most of Victoria’s reign, there were more armed police officers than there are today. The murder of police officers by shooting was running at twice the present rate of this sort of crime.