We were pleased to welcome Corinne Brazier as our guest speaker, she previously came in March, but due to technical issues, we were unable to see the slide show. The talk was well worth the wait. Corinne is the Heritage Manager and oversees the West Midlands Police Museum on Steelhouse Lane Lockup with the support of a National Lottery Heritage Funding grant. Enabling police heritage to be shared with as many people as possible and hoping to inspire the next generation of police officers.
In the time of peaky blinders poverty was quite high and it was hard to feed the family. In some cases mother’s would send the children out to steal so they would be arrested, it was the only way the children could get a bed and something to eat. There were many reasons why a person would be arrested, even for being idol. Records were found, dating back to 1892, for a woman named Elizabeth Taylor who got 3 months for frequenting, meaning being idol. As you can see in the photo of the woman, more than one photo would be taken, showing with and without a hat. This would show the police what the defendant would look like if they was wearing a hat. Descriptions were quite limited in the beginning, so having these photos were very important. Photo below of the man in the bowler hat holding his chin, sometimes photos included parts of the body, this would be done to show missing body parts, in this case, Christopher Charles Davis had missing fingers. Taking photos like this would be much easier than trying to write it down. Samuel Sheldon was a true life peaky blinder, he was what was known as a career criminal, a full time gambler, and some even killed police officers. George Williams ‘Cloggy’ got 18 years for killing a police officer. In 1901 George Fowler was involved with rioting against the police, when he and others were throwing bricks, but it was his brick that hit a police officer and killed him. There were so many fascinating facts that Corinne shared with us, it was very insightful to hear and see the photos of criminals. A trip to the police museum is a must.
