3-021-509 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Fenian Conspiracy: swearing-in special constables in the Pattern-Room, Royal Laboratory, Woolwich Arsenal, [London], 1868. 'The Illustration represents the swearing in of the officials, artificers, and labourers of Woolwich Arsenal as special constables for the preservation of the peace in the division of Blackheath...Several of the county magistrates attended for that purpose...Captain Robertson, R.N., and Mr. Brownlow Poulter, of Lee-park, Blackheath, administered the oaths...in the pattern-room of the Royal laboratory to the members of that department...It is computed that the aggregate number of "specials" thus added to the Woolwich force amounts to little short of 9000; and, including these, Woolwich can muster 13,000 new constables...Woolwich can therefore rely upon the services of a most efficient body of civilians, in addition to the military garrison, to resist a Fenian attack'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.