William Cole

Who is William Cole?

Sergeant William Cole was a London police officer who was awarded the Albert Medal for helping to contain a bomb attack on 24 January 1885.

In Westminster Hall at the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft, Cole was notified by a visitor about a smoking black bag on the lower steps leading up from the Chapel into Westminster Hall. Upon examination, he realized it contained dynamite and a lighted fuse. He rushed up the steps with it into Westminster Hall, intending to deposit the device in New Palace Yard. But before he could reach the door, a hot substance from the bag scalded his hand, causing him to drop it, and as he did so it exploded. He and a colleague, P.C. Cox, were thrown into the large crater torn into the floor of the Hall. Seconds later, another device exploded in the empty chamber of the House of Commons, causing extensive damage, and a third at the Tower of London. All the bombings were committed by the terrorist group known as the Fenians, the precursors to the Irish Republican Army, nationalists battling British rule in Ireland.

Unconscious and badly injured, Cole and his colleague were taken to hospital, where they were visited by the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt.