It seemed a shame to waste this photo I took in
London a week and a half ago, given that the fellow in this Matthew Noble
statue in Parliament Square, Sir Robert Peel, was born on this date 225 years ago. I’ll bet that, if we Yanks know
anything about him right now, it is as an answer to a Jeopardy-style question:
“Which politician are the ‘Bobbies’ of London’s police force named after?”
Indeed, “Bobby” Peel did, in 1822, as Home Secretary, create the Metropolitan
Police—and a good thing, too, considering the crime about to overwhelm
Britain’s capital as a result of urbanization and the Industrial Age. He would
go on to even greater prominence in his country’s history as a two-time
Conservative Prime Minister (1834-1835, 1841-1846).
No comments:
Post a Comment