Tottenham Outrage and Walthamstow Tram Chase

Geoffrey Barton

Description

Although well known to local people, the Tottenham Outrage of 1909 when two Latvian robbers, Jewish refugees, intercepted a payroll has been comparatively hidden to the wider world (unlike the notorious Siege of Sydney Street which took place two years later). Resulting in the most spectacular police pursuit in history it involved a hundred police officers and up to a thousand citizens in running to ground two desperate police killers.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Gran Londres
• True crime
• Legal history
• Greater London
• Grand Londres
• London

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781910979266
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Tottenham Outrage and Walthamstow Tram Chase
The Most Spectacular Hot Pursuit in History
Geoffrey Barton
Foreword Mike Waldren QPM
The Tottenham Outrage and Walthamstow Tram Chase
The Most Spectacular Hot Pursuit in History
ISBN 978-1-909976-40-5 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-910979-26-6 (Epub E-book)
ISBN 978-1-910979-27-3 (Adobe E-book)
Copyright © 2017 This work is the copyright of Geoffrey Barton. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by the author in full compliance with UK, European and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2016 Waterside Press by www.gibgob.com Front cover image from an original in the possession of Waterside Press.
Printed by Lightning Source.
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Cataloguing-In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
e-book The Tottenham Outrage and Walthamstow Tram Chase is available as an ebook and also to subscribers of Ebrary, Ebsco, Myilibrary and Dawsonera.
Published 2017 by
Waterside Press Ltd
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield on Loddon, Hook
Hampshire RG27 0JG.
Telephone [phone]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
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Table of Contents
England Will Not Forget 6
On and Off Duty: Faithful Unto Death 7
Acknowledgements 8
About the author 9
The author of the Foreword 10
Foreword by Mike Waldren QPM 11
Dedication 13 Latvia in 1909 15
Immigrants Abroad 17
Unrest Spreads Across Europe 19
Paul Helfeld and Jacob Lepidus 22 Tottenham and Walthamstow Old and New 25
Walthamstow 30 Tottenham Police Station 35
Police Equipment Then and Now 36
Recruitment and the Nature of Victorian Police Duties 40
Early Intelligence of an Industrial Dispute 42
Shots Amid the Morning Chaos 43 Weapons and Training 45
Crime Prevention 46
1920 Onwards … 48
Firearms Training … and Mishaps 50
Sir Edward Henry Takes Over at the MPS 54
Pistols 59
Armed Robbery 63
More About Firearms … 65 The Participants 69
The Perpetrators 69
The Victims 71
The Arresting Officers 74
The Injured Officers 77 The Robbery 79
Inside the Police Station 80
On the Streets Outside … and Schnurmann’s Payroll 82
The Robbery 85 The Hue and Cry 89
The Nature of the Chase 89
Helfeld and Lepidus Try to Make their Getaway … 93
Towards The Marshes … 97
Firearms for the Police 99
Into The Marshes … 100
The Police Firearms arrive … 102
The Tram Chase 108
Back to the Street Chase 110
Helfeld is Captured 112
Lepidus is Cornered 114 The Claims 121 The Aftermath 127
The Inquests 131
The Funerals 135
Helfeld’s Death in Hospital 142
What Did Happen to the Stolen Money? 144 Awards, Recognition and Words of Appreciation 147
And the Civilian Heroes? 152
Memorial Services 155
More Media Coverage and Commemorations 156 The Tottenham Outrage Today 159
Memorials 160 Metropolitan Police Report 163 Email from Helen MacDonald, Manager of the Carnegie Hero Fund Trust to the Author 172 Route of the Chase 174 The Cast 178 Letter from the Russian Consulate 183 Statement of Thomas William Brown 184 Statement of Henry George North 186 Statement of Mrs Eliza Rolstone 189 Return of Claims Made After The Outrage 190
Select References 197
Index 199
England Will Not Forget
(To the memory of Constable Tyler murdered in the execution of his duty)
Tramping up the last long beat
Comes a serried mass of blue
(Mournful roll of muffled drums)
Measured tread of many feet
All for what, and why, and who?
(“For who?” cry the drums, “for who?”)
Only a policeman, going home,
To the rest he has nobly won
(Mournful roll of muffled drums)
Only a humble man in blue,
Only a tale of duty done
(“Well done” thrill the drums, “well done”)
Only another hero’s name
To add to England’s roll of fame
(Triumphant rolling of the drums)
Only one of our very best
Going home to his well-earned rest
(“To peace”, sigh the drums, “and rest”)
S J C
The Hackney and Kingsland Gazette
3 February 1909
On and Off Duty: Faithful Unto Death
(In memory of Constable Tyler, killed in the execution of his duty)
The day was dark and dreary
As we went on our way,
Past the spot where our comrade
Kept the assassins at bay.
He had gone at duty’s bidding
Daring to do the right
Death facing without flinching
And foremost in the fight.
Comrade, we lay thee gently
Amid the flowers to rest.
Until the great awakening,
When the faithful will be blessed.
Gallant and brave was he ever
As many a time we saw,
And he saved the life of a woman
But a little while before.
And we pray that we, thy mourners,
May all inspired be,
To glorious deeds of duty,
Whene’er we think of thee.
Anon
1 March 1909
Acknowledgements
Abney Park Cemetery
All Saints’ Church at Childs Hill
British Library (Newspaper Library at Colindale)
Embassy of France
Family Records Centre
The French Institute
Hackney Archives
Haringey Archives at Bruce Castle
Haringey Council re Tottenham Cemetery
London Metropolitan Archives
Meteorological Office at Bracknell in Berkshire
Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre
Metropolitan Police Museum at Charlton
Metropolitan Police Records Management Branch
Metropolitan Police (Tottenham Division)
National Archives at Kew
New Scotland Yard (Archives Department)
Southend Records Office
Vestry House Museum, Walthamstow
Waltham Forest Arts and Leisure Services
Walthamstow Central Library
Waltham Forest Cemetery
About the author
Geoffrey Barton is a skilled and experienced “thief taker.” After joining the Metropolitan Police Service in 1975, he learnt his trade in Brixton and Walworth, where his size, strength and power soon singled him out as a fearsome adversary. He focused on professional street criminals, pickpockets, muggers and armed robbers. Having become a well-known and noticeable character on the streets of south London, he took to sitting in observation posts, identifying suspects to teams of surveillance officers who then followed them until they were about to commit or committed offences and were arrested. He was selected for firearms training and focused on tackling dangerous robbers and murderers including serial killers. He regularly arrested as many as ten suspects a day and on three occasions more than 50 in 24 hours.
The author of the Foreword
Mike Waldren QPM is the Historian to the Police Firearms Officers Association. Formerly a chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police Service and now retired, he was Head of MPS Firearms Training and Operations.
Foreword by Mike Waldren QPM

Commentators largely see armed crime as being a post-World War Two phenomenon — with some justification. There were only ten armed robberies in London in 1951 but over the next 40 years this figure steadily increased to 2,789 by 1991 and there were similar rises throughout the rest of the country, although not on quite the same scale.
Police forces have adapted to deal with armed criminals and more recently with jihadist terrorists. However, back at the turn of the last century armed robbery was almost unknown and contingency plans to deal with what today would be called an “active shooter” out in the open were non-existent. This was because there had never been any need for them which is why an event in 1909 defied belief at the time and was almost immediately afterwards called “The Tottenham Outrage”. Armed criminals, carrying “modern” firearms, which they were prepared to use, were chased through the streets over a distance of about six miles by police officers who were either unarmed or who were carrying firearms that were not only limited in number but out-of-date and badly in need of replacement.
They were joined by numerous members of the public, some of whom were also armed (which says a lot about the private ownership of firearms at the time), with a few of them even lending their guns to the police and showing a degree of “have-a-go” public spirit that would probably be considered out of place today.
Geoffrey Barton has made a careful study of the event and the story is told with commitment. More than that his book goes into considerable detail about the participants, the social conditions of the time and the aftermath. It is clear that in the absence of an armed response in the way that it is structured by police forces today, the officers involved did their best relying on guts and determination to see them through an unprecedented incident.
Mike Waldren QPM
Dedication
To the brave police officers and citizens of Tottenham, Walthamstow and Chingford and to the memory of William Frederick Tyler and Ralph Joscelyne
Chapter 1
Latvia in 1909
Latvia is one of three Baltic states in Northern Europe, bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the south-east, and by Sweden on its west along a maritime border. The climate is the same as that of its neighbour, Russia, generally very, very cold. It has a population of just over two million people, nearly 30 per cent of whom are Russian (some of whom have been declared non-citizens, with limited rights and no right to vote in national or municipal elections), and a territory of almost 65,000 square kilometres.
The country had been under foreign rule for six centuries before the First World War (1914–1918). The two great European powers that surround it, Russia and Germany