2-652-693 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Sidney Street siege, Whitechapel, London, 1911, (1935). Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, the left of the top-hatted figures, is earnestly watching the activities of the soldiers of the Scots Guards and the police. The Sidney Street siege occurred after a gang of heavily armed Latvian burglars shot five police officers who attempted to arrest them as they attempted to break into a jeweller's shop. Four of the policemen died. Three members of the gang were cornered at 100 Sidney Street and surrounded by the police. A gunfight ensued, but the police had inferior weapons and reinforcements in the form of soldiers from the Scots Guards were called in by order of Churchill, who arrived to observe the scene himself. After six hours of fighting, the building caught fire and Churchill controversially gave the order that the Fire Brigade take no action. Two of the burglars' bodies were discovered in the burned out building but no trace of the third was ever found. A print from King Emperor's Jubilee, 1910-1935, by FGH Salusbury, Daily Express Publications, London, 1935. (Colorised black and white print).