Truncheon

Popularly known as 'Fenians', the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) was a clandestine nationalist organisation formed in 1858 to oppose British rule in Ireland. In 1867 the IRB attempted an uprising in Dublin. The same year it exploded a bomb at Clerkenwell prison in an attempt to free IRB prisoners being held there. The prison break ended in failure and the blast killed 6 people living nearby in Corporation Row. The Fenian leader Michael Barrett became the last person to be publicly executed in Britain when he was hanged outside Newgate Prison in 1868.

This truncheon was carried by Welcome Cole, an official of the General Post Office (GPO). After the Clerkenwell bombing the House of Commons authorised the Home Secretary to recruit 50,000 special constables. Over one thousand GPO staff were sworn in as special constables in this period. The truncheon is decorated with the royal coat of arms and Queen Victoria's cypher.