As I m filming police brutality, integrity
and even women's safety in police hands has been questioned.
But it s also a time when police have faced threats to their own life and security.
We probably all see the Royal Mile in Edinburgh as a quaint, somewhat twi tourist location
and we can all look back to the good old days when people were protected
and folks either side of that thin blue line felt safer
or can we? If you re interested in the people,
places and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe
button at the bottom right of the screen. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.
My mate Gary Knight has written a book called Fatal Duty: Kop Killers, killer Kops and more.
Its a great book. You should buy it and I ll leave a link in the description.
I don t make any money from this, it s just that he s a mate from my
village and there s some great stories one of which I m going to tell you today
and it starts here on Niddry St
or maybe it starts with the creation of the police force.
If you re watching this in the UK and I ask: What was the first police force?
straight away you d think of Robert Peel who started the Metropolitan police,
the Peelers, in London in 1829.
That s what we ve been taught. In fact a professional police force
had been established in Glasgow more than forty years earlier.
Now that was short lived, but the Glasgow Police Act,
formally establishing their police force passed the UK parliament on
30th June 1800, almost thirty years before the Peelers.
There followed more acts of the British Parliament establishing
several other Scottish police forces before Robert Peel got to work.
Edinburgh City Police was established in 1805. I suppose it s just one other thing
Scots invented.
At the end there's going to be a link to a video about another first in Scottish history
and I want you to stick around and watch that
...but at that time, early in the 19th Century, that Regency period between Georgian and Victorian,
Edinburgh was changing as well. The Georgian New Town to the north
of the city was now establishing itself as the location of wealthy Edinburgers
who no longer needed to live in the cramped and fetid closes of the Old Town.
But if you were a New Town gent who liked a bit of seedy entertainment.
Taverns, cock fights, bare knuckle boxing, carousing,
or even a bit of how s yer father you pretty much had to come back over here
to the Old Town And the Niddry St gang
would be waiting. Ready to relive you of pocket watch, cash
or other valuables. But the Niddry Street gang
weren t the only gang in town and as New Year 1812 approached
they, along with other gangs in Cannonsgait, Calton and Grassmarket
had made plans. Behind me is The Tron.
It was always the place where folk came to see in the New Year and the bells
until Edinburgh replaced a Scottish Hogmanay with a corporate street party.
Does anyone remember Scottish Hogmanay?
I do. Here s a
picture taken here not long after the bells had struck in the first hour of January 1984.
I m the one on the left in case you re wondering.
It was teeming with rain and apart from that the only
thing I can remember was throwing up into my mate Richard s hat at some point later.
I don t remember that either Anyway I digress
As 1811 passed into 1812 the Tron and surrounding taverns
would be just as much a lure to New Town gents as it would be to students 170 years later.
The pickings for the Edinburgh gangs would be good.
Their modus operand was, at the shout of a
codeword or sound of a whistle, to trip or knock a gent to the floor,
strike them a blow, and whilst the victim was
still groggy, empty their pockets. The problem for these gangs
was the recently established Edinburgh police force had been bad for business.
So in the weeks leading up to the Hogmanay celebrations they had come together with
the intention of giving the police a hiding; freeing up the town for their nefarious actions.
One particular police officer called Murray was to be targeted.
They despised him and wanted to get their hands on him because he regularly chased
them off the North and South bridges that run across the Royal Mile.
Along here is The North Bridge.
This is the South Bridge and there s The Tron behind me.
These days they re busy with cars, but Francis James Hughes was walking between
these North and south Bridges that Hogmanay night, when a group of young men passed him.
and he heard a word shouted. Little did he know that the word
was the signal to attack. Thugs knocked him down and robbed him.
When he got up and approached the young men, they beat him mercilessly
In spite of being told by a young boy that gentlemen were being attacked and robbed,
Roger Hog Lawrie was on The North Bridge not long before midnight.
A group of young men surrounded him and asked for money for drink.
He gave them half a crown, which was no small sum in those days.
Then he was knocked down.
But as he pulled himself up again to run away he was blocked by a man carrying a stick.
The thug raised his arm to strike Lawrie and when Lawrie flinched
the man grabbed the chain of his pocket watch. Fortunately for Lawrie,
as the hoodlum ran the chain broke and the thief ended up with the chain,
leaving Lawrie with the watch. But Lawrie still handed over the
rest of his cash to other thugs to avoid further beating.
Nicol Allan, an insurance company manager, had a double misfortune.
As he walked the streets he felt a blow to the head, which felled him to the ground.
He struggled to get up and walk on, but was knocked down again
and robbed where he lay. As he groggily got to his feet
and tried to run away from the trouble he was knocked down and mugged by a different gang
Ensign Humphrey Cochrane was serving with Renfrewshire Militia
and based up the hill at Edinburgh Castle. He was running away from the disturbances,
but was knocked down and dragged up one of the closes on the Royal Mile
where he was beaten and robbed. A man called John Thomson was walking
up the Royal Mile, where he met Police watchman Dugald Campbell
near The Cross here walking down. He told the police officer not to go down
the street as he would be attacked. Campbell s response was bullish.
Damn the Fear he said and headed off down the hill towards the Tron.
It was only as he reached The Tron that he realised the danger he was in.
The Cry went up, it s the polis! and a great mob surged towards him.
Campbell saw the better part of valour and turned and ran back up the Royal Mile.
A sailor called John Black saw the mob chase Campbell up the street.
As he ran one of the louts tripped him, and they were on him before
he d even reached the ground. He heard a shout of: It s The Royal Arch!
which was the nickname they had conferred on Dugald Campbell.
The mob were kicking, punching and repeatedly laying into him with sticks.
Through the thuds of hardwood against flesh and cracking bone Campbell cried: Murder
The Seaman went to help the officer but was driven back with sticks.
The other bystander, John Thomson rushed to help,
but HE was driven back. This all took place here at
Stamp Office Close between where The Whisky Trail and Crest of Edinburgh stand today.
The gang only stopped when news came of another disturbance down at the Tron
and they raced off to that Thomson and Black
lifted the groaning Dugald Campbell and took him to the nearby police office,
but he was incapable of speech.
The duty Sergent left him in the care of a Mr D Gray who lived at the police office.
I don t know why? Mr Gray called a doctor and Campbell
was taken to the Royal Infirmary where he died two days later,
on 3rd January 1812 Various witnesses had identified Hugh
MacDonald, Neil Sutherland and Hugh MacIntosh as being involved in what had now become
the first ever killing of a policeman and the search went out.
Eventually the three men were picked up in Glasgow and brought back to Edinburgh.
At their trial on 20th March 1812, they all pled Not guilty.
But there was lots of evidence against the three,
and the story that Gary collated for his book is based on the witness statements in court.
Now there were also those who spoke for the accused,
to suggest it couldn t have been them. I suspect that whether or not they were
the perpetrators of this specific crime, given their involvement in the street gangs,
reports by other gang members that police were to be targeted
and the fact that the man murdered was a policeman
would leave them vulnerable to any jury.
and at 1pm on 21 March 1812 the jury unanimously found MacIntosh,
MacDonald and Sutherland guilty.
22nd April was a warm sunny day for a Royal Mile hanging.
The condemned men had chosen to walk to their place of execution directly opposite
where the crime was committed. Fearing mob violence, 400 men of the Royal,
Perthshire Militia lined the street here 200 Royal Edinburgh Volunteers were
round the corner in Hunter Sq, with a reserve of 6th Dragoons in Nicholson St.
The men were brought to exactly the spot where I stand now
and, at 3.30 in the afternoon, the hangman did his job
and took those lives for the life of a policeman doing HIS job four months earlier.
From that time to this people have had cause to fear the police
and the authority they wield, but police officers have also
had to face threats to their own safety as an integral part of day-to-day work life.
It s a tougher job than making videos.
...because the police force and society
contain people. Virtuous,
wicked, careless,
kind, aggressive, fearful, flawed
and all too human people
like you and me. No matter what side
of that thin blue line you find yourself, we ALL want to walk the streets in safety.
If you enjoyed this, video then why not watch the video coming up about another
first ever event in Scottish history In the meantime,
Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.