On this day, 3 January 1911, the famous Siege of Sidney Street took place in London, when a group of three exiled Latvian revolutionaries engaged in a gun battle with over 1,000 police and soldiers. Wanted for the killing of two police officers in an attempted jewellery heist the previous month, two of the gang were eventually killed when the house they were held up in caught fire, and Winston Churchill who was Home Secretary at the time refused to let firefighters put it out. The suspected leader of the gang, Peter Piatkow, aka “Peter the Painter” (pictured) was never found, became a working class hero in the East End and there are many competing theories as to what became of him, including questioning if he actually existed…
Historian Philip Ruff believes that Peter was a revolutionary named Jānis Žāklis.
More information here: https://libcom.org/history/peter-painter-janis-zhaklis-siege-sidney-street https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.1819457841572691/2177975462387592/?type=3