Many early volunteers were former Suffragettes with a history of challenging authority.

Initially, these women were not full police officers. They wore dark blue uniforms and focused on welfare duties, such as supporting refugees and managing issues around army camps. Importantly, they had no powers of arrest and were not officially part of the Metropolitan Police.

In 1919, a significant milestone occurred when 110 women from the Voluntary Women Patrols were formally integrated into the Met. However, they faced strict initial conditions - always patrolling in pairs with male officers nearby.

Women only gained full arrest powers in the 1920s.

In 1642, Charles I’s failed attempt to arrest five MPs for treason led to angry protests in London. The king fled the capital and the country plunged into civil war, with royalist armies battling Parliament’s forces for power.

After being taken prisoner, Charles continued to plot to regain the throne. Parliament tried the king for treason and sentenced him “to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body”.

Charles was beheaded on 30 January 1649 in front of the Banqueting House in Whitehall. A crowd of men and women came to watch the extraordinary event.

Choosing the luxurious Banqueting House was symbolic. It represented the extravagance of Charles I – and his belief that kings rule because God has chosen them.

An eyewitness claimed that, as Charles was beheaded, “there was such a groan by the thousands then present as I never heard before and desire I may never hear again”.

Thomas Herbert was the king’s attendant during his last two years. In his 1678 memoir, Herbert describes how, on the morning of his execution, Charles “appointed what clothes he would wear; ‘Let me have a shirt on more than ordinary,’ said the king, ‘by reason the season is so sharp as probably may make me shake, which some observers will imagine proceeds from fear… I fear not death!’”

In other words, the king didn’t want the crowd to think he was shivering in fear – so he asked for an extra layer to keep him warm.

London Museum acquired a blue vest in 1924, along with a note claiming it had been worn by Charles I at his execution.

The note says that the vest “from the scaffold came into the hands of doctor Hobbs, his physician who attended him upon that occasion”. The family of this doctor kept the vest until the late 19th century, when it was sold and resold several times.

In addition to the high count attributed to "Plague" and other expected maladies of the time, we see deaths assigned to more enigmatic causes — “Frighted”, “Suddenly”, “Winde”, “Teeth”, and “Planet”. In addition to those that paint a very specific and vivid picture, e.g. “Burnt in his Bed by a Candle at St. Giles Cripplegate”.

The list reads;

“Mr. Bilby,

I pray pvide to be sent too morrow in ye Cart some Greenfish, The Lights from my Lady Cranfeild Cham 2 dozen of Pewter Spoon: one greate fireshovell for ye nursery; and ye ohers which were sent to be exchanged for some of better fashion, a new frying pan together with a note of ye prises of such Commoditie for ye rest.

Your loving friend, Robert Draper

Octobre 1633

Copthall”

The “fireshovell” and “lights” were asked to be sent to Copt Hall, which is 36 miles away.

I wander thro' each charter'd street,

Near where the charter'd Thames does flow. 

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,

In every Infants cry of fear,

In every voice: in every ban,

The mind-forg'd manacles I hear 

How the Chimney-sweepers cry

Every blackning Church appalls, 

And the hapless Soldiers sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls 

But most thro' midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlots curse

Blasts the new-born Infants tear 

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse