100 years ago nation held its breath…

IT WAS a tense stand-off that gripped the nation. Three policemen had been murdered two-and-a-half weeks earlier by Latvian anarchists during a botched burglary and two of the gang were believed to be holed up in a tenement in Stepney.

The Siege of Sidney Street became part of the folklore of London's East End, and in the forefront of the resulting gun battle was the home secretary, a young Winston Churchill.

Yesterday, the three police heroes, Sergeants Robert Bentley, 36, and Charles Tucker, 46, and PC Walter Choat, 34, were remembered on the 100th anniversary of their murders, when the first memorial was unveiled near the scene of the killings at Houndsditch in the City. It was the worst police shooting in British history. The three were all posthumously awarded the King's Police Medal.

The siege came about after police were tipped off that two members of the gang were hiding out at 100 Sidney Street. Churchill joined the huge crowd watching as hundreds of police officers and a company of Scots Guards engaged in a fierce gun battle with the suspects.

When the house caught fire Churchill stopped firemen from putting out the blaze, fearing more lives could be lost, a decision that caused a political storm. Eventually, the bodies of two of the anarchists were discovered in the burnt-out house.