Product Details
A RARE VICTORIAN TRUNCHEON CARVED TO COMMEMORATE THE EXECUTION OF THREE IRISH FENIANS CONVICTED OF KILLING A POLICE SERGEANT IN 1867,
a standard mid-Victorian Special Constable's police truncheon carved to commemorate the execution of Allen, Larkin & Gould, the inscription has an overlaid 'CK' monogram followed by 'SPECIAL CONSTABLE / STOCKPORT / EXECUTION OF / ALLEN LARKIN GOULD', the carving is somewhat shallow and amateur in execution; it would seem likely that the police officer who used it was one of the 'specials' tasked with maintaining order during the executions and carved it himself in memory of what was a highly significant event of the time.
Provenance: in an incident known at the time as the 'Manchester Outrages', a group of 30–40 Fenians attacked a horse-drawn police van transporting two arrested Fenian leaders, during which a police sergeant was shot and killed. None of the subsequently arrested defendants was accused of firing the fatal shot, but three men were convicted of murder on the basis of "joint enterprise" and hanged at Salford gaol in front of a crowd of thousands. Special Constables were drafted from across the Manchester area to maintain order during the executions. In Ireland, there was anger amongst the Nationalists, with the dead men becoming known as the 'Manchester Martyrs'.
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Estimate £200-300