Peterloo Massacre at St Peter's Field, Manchester

Background. Radicals identified parliamentary reform as the solution to their grievances, and a mass campaign to petition parliament for manhood suffrage gained three-quarters of a million signatures in 1817 but was flatly rejected by the House of Commons. The movement was particularly strong in the north-west, where the Manchester Patriotic Union organised a mass rally in August 1819, addressed by the well-known Radical orator Henry Hunt. The event was later labelled the "Peterloo massacre" by the radical Manchester Observer newspaper, a bitterly ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.

The Rally. On a hot summer day, large crowds gathered at St Peter's Field. Estimates of attendance range from 60,000 to 150,000. Women from the Manchester Female Reform Society, dressed in white, accompanied Henry Hunt to the platform. The gathering was intended to petition for political rights and reform, reflecting the strong radical movement in the north-west.

The Charge. Soldiers on horseback charged the peaceful crowd when ordered to disperse it. The cavalry of the Yeomen charged into the crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand parliamentary reform. Casualty figures differ across sources: the present plaque records 15 deaths and over 600 injuries, one passage reports at least 18 killed and more than 700 injured, and another gives 18 killed and 400–700 injured. The radical Manchester Observer newspaper first labelled the event the "Peterloo massacre" in bitter ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier.