Constable Stabbed In Whitechapel

Whitechapel was widely regarded as one of the most dangerous parts of the Victorian metropolis to police.

Indeed, the newspapers of the era contain numerous reports of constables and detectives being confronted by all manner of hazards as they went about their duties trying to maintain law and order in the district.

There were crimes such as the fatal stabbing of Police Constable Ernest Thompson, which took place in early December 1900.

Constable Thompson’s name was well known in the newspapers of the age in the early 1890s, as he was the officer who found the body of Frances Coles on Friday the 13th of February 1891.

Illustrations showing the murder of Ernest Thompson.
From The Illustrated Police News. Copyright, The British Library Board.

STABBED IN WHITECHAPEL

ATTACK ON A CONSTABLE

But there were other attacks on police officers that, although not as tragic in their consequences, could easily have been so.

One such attack was reported in The Echo newspaper on Monday, 19th November 1888:-

Constable Wilcox, of the H Division, charged a young man named John Hurley, at the Thames Police Court, today, with assaulting him.

The officer said that about midnight on Saturday, he was in Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, outside a public house, when the prisoner tripped him up, saying, “You’ve locked my chum up.”

ATTACKED ON THE GROUND

A gang of roughs then got round the officer and kicked him while he was on the ground.

He got up and arrested Hurley. who then called out to the crowd, “Rescue me,” his companions then knocked the officer down and rescued the prisoner.

The latter kicked the officer on the face and struck him on the right shoulder blade.

The officer was taken to the police station and the prisoner was afterwards brought in.

HE HAD BEEN STABBED

When the constable got home he felt a pain in his back and then found he had been stabbed. His great coat, tunic, and shirts had been cut through, and there was a wound about a quarter of an inch deep. His shirt was saturated with blood.

HE WAS AT A FRIENDLY LEAD

The prisoner denied that he was the man who had stabbed the officer, and he called his mother, who said he was at a “friendly lead ” at the time of the assault.

Mr. Saunders remanded the accused.