A VICTORIAN BOMB with a timing device reminds us that explosions in London are not a new phenomenon: indeed, Guy Fawkes and others put barrels of gunpowder in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament as long ago as 1605. Inspector Maurice Moser was sent from Scotland Yard to Liverpool in 1883 where a consignment of explosives was expected. He spent three weeks trying to look inconspicuous in Liverpool docks and eventually found a pile of casks supposedly containing cement. The company named on the address details did not exist, and Moser found that each contained a ‘fully charged infernal machine’ with clockwork mechanism and dynamite.
The phrase ‘infernal machine’ may have been coined by Colonel Sir Vivian Majendie, one of the first bomb-disposal experts and the Chief Inspector of Explosives from 1871 to 1898. He defused a number of bombs that had a clockwork timing mechanism, designed to fire a pistol into detonators to trigger the main explosion, sometimes called a ‘Majendie bomb’. Majendie believed in trying to dismantle and investigate bombs when it was reasonable and safe to do so. His courage, shared with many explosive officers to follow, saved many lives.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), forerunner of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), had gained experience of using weapons and explosives from the American Civil War and started to plan a terrorism campaign on the British mainland for Irish home rule. The year 1867 saw an armed attack on a Manchester prison van and the murder of Sergeant Brett during the course of setting Thomas Kelly free, one of the IRB leaders. This was followed by the Clerkenwell explosion, which killed six people when the IRB tried unsuccessfully to release ‘Colonel’ O’Sullivan Burke and his accomplice, Case, from the prison. The explosion destroyed about 60yds of prison wall, killed six people and injured 126, but the prison governor had moved the two prisoners to a different part of the prison after receiving information that an escape attempt would be made.
By 1883, Scotland Yard had established the Special Irish Branch, later named Special Branch, to investigate terrorism, particularly a series of bombs left in railway stations. Between March 1883 and early 1885 there were thirteen bombings, culminating in ‘Dynamite Saturday’, on 24 January 1885, when a bomb exploded in the Tower of London where James Cunningham was arrested. Cunningham’s accomplice, Harry Burton, planted the bomb that exploded that day in the Houses of Parliament as it was being carried away by PC William Cole. PC Cole was awarded the Albert Medal in gold for his courage, the only police officer to receive such an award. Cunningham and Burton were arrested because PC Thomas Gallagher locked the gates of the Tower of London immediately after the explosion to prevent anybody from leaving. Detective Inspector Frederick Abberline rushed to the scene, questioned everyone and was suspicious of a man who gave his name as James Gilbert. Gilbert was investigated and found to be James Cunningham using a false name, and a search of his lodgings then led to the arrest of Harry Burton.
The IRA planted bombs in London during the Second World War, when, in 1939, the famous Detective Inspector Robert Fabian was awarded the King’s Police Medal for bravery for dismantling a bomb left in Piccadilly. As the bomb makers developed their skills and technology developed, the design of IRA bombs became ever more complex. They included anti-handling switches and other mechanisms to trigger an explosion when the bombs were being moved or when explosives officers were taking obvious steps to dismantle them.