IntroductionThere are incidents in any city’s history that go down ininfamy and just such a one is the Battle of Cable Streeton the 4th day of October in the Year of Our Lord 1894.
THE BATTLE OF CABLE STREET, 4TH OCTOBER 1894
Below. Fowler Mk V Walker
The incident was sparked by a simple daily occurrencearound the great imperial docks in the East End ofLondon. A wagon heading for the docks to be loaded ontoa fast steamer to India was intercepted by a cadre of theBrick Lane Commune. They hoped to get whiskey orcotton cloth, something they might trade for food for thepoor and destitute. What they actually got was secretshipment of the new water-cooled Vickers machine gunsand enough ammunition to mow down an army.As the shipment was supposed to be secret the policewere not informed and Captain Napier of the Prince ofWales’s Extraordinary Company was tasked with theirimmediate, and preferably covert, retrieval.