The Battle of Bow Street is the name given to a riot which took place in Bow Street, London, during March 1919. The riot involved an estimated 2,000 Australian, American and Canadian servicemen fighting against 50

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

officers.

Rioting in Bow Street

During March 1919, Metropolitan Police officers patrolling the Strand came across three American

soldiers A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

and

sailors A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

, playing

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing ...

outside the 'Eagle Hut' which was a rest and relaxation center set up by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

. When the servicemen were advised by the police officers that this was illegal, they protested that they had won the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

for the British and that they would do as they pleased. Upon the two officers placing the three servicemen under arrest, a large crowd gathered round and a pitched battle began. Due to the officers being outnumbered they sounded their police whistles signalling the need for assistance, which brought reinforcements. In the following mêlée several servicemen were struck with truncheons. A

corporal Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...

named Zimmerman addressed the crowd stating that he would stop the trouble himself. However, several officers believing that he was in the process of drawing a firearm from under his coat, felled him with truncheon blows around the head. The police fought their way back to Bow Street Police Station, taking their prisoners with them. Later that night a rumour circulated among servicemen that Zimmerman had died in police custody; despite the efforts of YMCA staff and American

officers An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fr ...

to assure the crowd that this was untrue, the crowd proceeded to throw bricks and stones at Bow Street Police Station. Around twenty police officers forced the crowd back with a baton charge, and later joined by thirty more officers the police formed a protective line around the police station. The police repeated successful baton charges when the crowd tried to overwhelm them. Later in the night

mounted police Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in t ...

cleared the street of servicemen and a large number of police stayed on duty well into the night to counter any renewed disturbance.

Aftermath

Following an investigation into the events, 30 servicemen were arrested, with seven American soldiers and sailors handed over to the Military Police Corps and the US Navy shore patrol respectively. Four Canadian servicemen appeared at Bow Street Magistrates' Court charged with riot and six other servicemen who were injured in the riot were kept under guard in hospital before a later appearance in court.

References

{{Riots in England Metropolitan Police operations 20th-century riots in London 1919 in London Military scandals March 1919 events