Episode Four: The Bricklayer

The 1840s were a revolutionary decade. France and Italy had been
rocked by revolution; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert feared
that Britain might be next. In April 1848, a movement demanding
universal male suffrage known as the Chartists announced they
would march on Parliament.  Lamps outside Buckingham Palace had
been smashed by a crowd shouting republican slogans - the Royal
Family fled, fearing for their lives. To the relief of the Royal
Family, the revolution never happened; Victoria said her people
loved order and security too much to allow the ‘promoters of
pillage and confusion any chance of success in their wicked
designs.’ But the Queen spoke too soon - just 6 months later, in
amongst the crowds celebrating her 30th birthday was an out of
work bricklayer named William Hamilton. And he was armed. As the
Queen’s carriage approached, Hamilton pulled a pistol from the
pocket of his tattered corduroy trousers, pointed at his target
and fired.


Dr Bob Nicholson digs deep into the historical records and
contemporary newspaper accounts to find out why William Hamilton
became the fourth man in less than a decade to attack Queen
Victoria. Bob’s journey takes him into the world of the Irish
community in London, the political unrest of the 1840s, and the
infamous floating prisons – the ‘hulks’.