On Tuesday evening 18 November 1975 an
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
(IRA) unit nicknamed the
Balcombe Street Gang
The Balcombe Street Gang was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) active service unit (ASU) (also known as the Balcombe Street Four or the Balcombe Street Unit) who carried out a bombing campaign in southern England in the mid-1970s. The ...
, without warning, threw a bomb into Walton's Restaurant in
Walton Street,
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End.
...
, London, killing two people and injuring almost two dozen others.
Background
The IRA began a bombing campaign in Britain in 1973 when they exploded a
car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
outside the
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...
on 8 March of that year. According to the leader of the Balcombe Street unit, the first bombing they carried out was the
Guildford pub bombings
The Guildford pub bombings occurred on 5 October 1974 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two gelignite bombs at two pubs in Guildford, Surrey, England. The pubs were targeted because they were popular with British Army p ...
on 5 October 1974, which killed five people and injured over 60 others. In February 1975, the
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
agreed to a truce. Before the truce, the IRA
Active service unit
An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units.
T ...
(ASU), later dubbed the Balcombe Street Gang (because of the December 1975
Balcombe Street siege
The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the r ...
), had been bombing targets in England since autumn 1974, particularly in London and Surrey. In total the unit carried out around 40 bomb and gun attacks on mainland Britain between October 1974 - December 1975.
Bombing
After the 1975 IRA–British Army truce began to break, the IRA's Balcombe Street ASU stepped up its bombing and shooting campaign on mainland Britain. On the night of 18 November 1975 the unit chose to bomb Walton's Restaurant, in Walton Street, Chelsea. At approximately 21:50 in the evening, an explosive device was thrown by IRA Volunteers through the window of the restaurant. Two civilians, Audrey Edgson (aged 45) and Theodore Williams (aged 49), were killed. The explosive device injured 23 other people, the oldest of them 71 years of age. The IRA used miniature ball bearings within the bomb to maximise injuries. Two persons, a man and woman, died at
St. Stephen's Hospital shortly after being taken there.
According to Dr. Laurence Martin, the consultant in charge of the casualty department in St. Stephen's Hospital, four of those injured required emergency operations.
Martin reportedly said: "We have been involved with nine bomb incidents in the past two years but this is the worst".
Senior Scotland Yard official, James Nevin, deputy head of the bomb squad, said that the bomb used in the attack had been a "shrapnel‐like device" containing three pounds of explosives.
Aftermath
This was the Balcombe Street gang's last major bomb attack during their fourteen-month bombing campaign of the British mainland. The IRA units bombing campaign would come to an end in December 1975 when they were caught at the
Balcombe Street Siege
The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the r ...
which is where the unit got its name from.
See also
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References
External links
Contemporary television news coverage
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Explosions in 1975
1975 in London
Provisional IRA bombings in London
Attacks on restaurants in the United Kingdom
1975 crimes in the United Kingdom
November 1975 events in the United Kingdom
20th century in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
November 1975 crimes
Building bombings in London