In 1819, a crowd of some 50,000 gathered in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, to hear leading campaigners speak on Parliamentary reform. Quite unexpectedly, the authorities moved to arrest the organiser, Henry Hunt, and as he took the podium a detachment of the Manchester Yeomanry, on peacekeeping duty, saw fit to draw their weapons and rush the crowd.

The attack on the defenceless crowd of men, women and children left as many as a dozen dead, and some four hundred wounded. Despite outrage in Manchester and across the country, official blame was directed at Hunt, who was found guilty of conspiracy and jailed for thirty months, whereas the indisciplined military received a commendation from the Prince Regent himself.

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