PEACE

Charles (son of John Peace of Sheffield, shoemaker). b. Nursery st. Sheffield 14 May 1832; a tinsmith and a workman at a rolling mill; appeared on the stage at Worksop as the modern Pagan in i, playing a violin with one string 1853; became a portico robber; robbed a residence at Sheffield, sentenced to 4 years’ penal servitude 1854; committed a burglary at Rusholme, received 6 years’ penal servitude 1859; committed a burglary at Manchester, had 10 years’ penal servitude 1864, while in prison joined a mutiny, was flogged and sent to Gibraltar; a picture frame dealer at Sheffield 1872; murdered Arthur Dyson at Banner cro near Sheffield 29 Nov. 1876, eluded capture in a wonderful manner, a uming many disguises and still committing burglaries; removed his residence to Green wich, then to Evelina road, Peckham, Surrey; captured by policeman Robinson 10 Oct. 1878; under the alias of John Ward, sentenced to penal servitude for life for shooting and wounding Robinson 19 Nov. 1878; an a ociate Mrs. Thompson betrayed his real identity to the police; attempted suicide while in custody by jumping out of a railway carriage window between Retford and Sheffield 22 Jany. 1879; executed Armley gaol, Leeds for murder of A. Dyson 25 Feb. 1879. The life of C. Peace ( London 1878) portrait ; M. Williams’s Leaves of a life (1891) 257–63; Times 26 Feb. 1879 p. 10, cols. 1–3; Illustrated police news 1, 8, 15, 22 Feb. , 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 March , 5 April 1879 portraits ; Graphic xix 121 (1879) portrait ; A. Griffiths’ Secrets of the prison house i 30, ii 137, 218, 230, 232, 284 (1894). Note. —Nicholas Cock a policeman was shot by a burglar at Whalley Range, Manchester on 1 Aug. 1876, and William Habron, chiefly on the evidence of the police, was convicted of the offence and sent to penal servitude. Peace afterwards confe ed that he had committed the murder and Habron was released 18 March 1879. Did Peace commit the Whalley Range murder ( Manchester 1879). His folding ladder by which he could ascend to a first floor window is in the criminal museum at the convict office, New Scotland yard, Thames Embankment.