Charles Brett

Charles Brett ( – 18 September 1867) was a police sergeant from Manchester, England. In 1867, he was shot dead in an ambush on the locked police carriage transporting the Fenians Thomas J. Kelly and Timothy Deasy; he was the first police officer from Manchester to be killed on duty. History Brett was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, to Mary and William Brett, who both worked in the clothing industry. Brett followed them into the industry, and at the time of the 1841 Census was working as a weaver. In 1830, he had married a woman named Mary. They had four children: William, Mary, Charles and Elizabeth. The Manchester City Police force came into existence after the passing of the County Police Act 1839. With his family, he moved from Macclesfield to Manchester about 1847 and his police career began then; his youngest daughter was born in Manchester in 1850. In 1861, he was living at 7 Wilson Street. At the time of his death, Brett had had a lot of experience accompanying prisoners to gaol in secure transports. Thomas Kelly, the new leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, had been arrested in Manchester with Timothy Deasy under the Vagrancy Act in the small hours of 11 September 1867. Suspected of being robbers, they were found to be armed and information was later passed from Dublin which established their identity. A magistrate directed that they be remanded in custody. An escape plan was arranged by Ricard O'Sullivan Burke, an Irish veteran of the American Civil War. On 18 September, Brett was with a horse-drawn police van; he was one of a dozen police officers transferring prisoners from Court to Belle Vue Gaol in Manchester. Kelly and Deasy were in locked compartments separated from the other prisoners. A group of Fenians armed with an assortment of firearms and cudgels surrounded the carriage at the bridge over Hyde Road near the gaol. One - James Cahill - shot a horse dead in order to stop the carriage. The officers were overwhelmed: one was reported wounded by a bullet, as was a passer-by. Attempts by the attackers to lever open the door failed. They called to Brett inside the van, demanding the keys. The words of reply, "I dare not. I must do my duty," were later attributed to Brett (and were inscribed on his gravestone). Peter Rice, another of the ambush group, fired through the keyhole of the lock; this was in order to break it, according to a police witness, Constable Shaw. The bullet passed through Brett's eye into his skull, killing him.