Sir Robert Peel

[DrT33th]

A Montrose Visitors Website refers to the town's Statue of Sir Robert Peel as follows:

"The south end of the High Street is overlooked by a statue of Sir Robert Peel, a local man who was British Prime Minister and founder of the present-day Police Force. From his name came the old slang term for police, 'The Peelers'."

Is there a Montrose connection to Sir Robert Peel?  It doesn't appear in any of the biography stuff I have read (although to be fair I didn't delve too deeply).

Does anyone know?

[Forfarian]

News to me!

[Archivos]

Who knew Montrose is the 'sculpture capital of Angus'...!  With regards to Robert Peel though, the Montrose Review has this to say:

"In common with many towns, Montrose has its own memorial to the statesman Sir Robert Peel. Now perhaps best remembered for founding the first modern police force – the "Peelers" – Sir Robert also held several posts in government and was involved in military operations against Napoleon's armies in Europe. He entered Parliament in 1809 at the age of 21 after his father purchased the seat of Cashel in Tipperary and in his subsequent career he held several significant posts including chief secretary for Ireland, Home Secretary, eventually becoming Prime Minister in 1834. There are memorials to Peel in towns across the country due mainly to his repeal in 1846 of the Corn Laws, a move prompted by the Irish potato famine. In an attempt to avert mass starvation in Ireland, Peel's government removed the duties on imported corn. The policy split the Conservative party and Peel was forced to resign. The statue was sculpted by Alexander Handyside Ritchie and erected in its current High Street site in 1855."

Could only find a cached version, which is at http://www.rootschat.com/links/01k6p/

[MaureeninNY]

Oh.


Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin review; and Forfar and Kincardineshire advertiser. August 27, 1852

[Viktoria]

Robert Peel was born in Bury surely.
There is a tower-Peel Tower- on top of Holcombe Hill .
 Erected in grateful memory of the man who was instrumental in repealing The Corn Laws which kept English  corn prices artificially high by preventing the import of cheap foreign corn.
People were starving and after the Peterloo Riots the country was in great unrest and it was feared a revolution would be the result. Added to that  as has been said an influx of many Irish people who were also  starving as a result of the failed potato harvest and the refusal of people Like Lord Trevelyan to release stocks of corn instead exporting it.
Whether Peel was in real sympathy with the poorer people or if he made a wise move to avoid a bloody confrontation we cannot be sure of course.
Whatever it was a blessing to the poor lower classes of society and Peel was held in great esteem.
His reorganisation of the Police Force must have been another wise move in those times of civil unrest,
 That`s what I remember from History at school .
                                                                      Viktoria.

[mirl]

He also had a major hand in catholic emancipation, freed trade and working hours reform.

[Maiden Stone]

The only Scottish connections I can find were that a brother married a daughter of the Marquis of Ailsa (Ayrshire) and a deranged Scotsman tried to assassinate him. George Square, Glasgow also  has a statue of Sir Robert.
He spent time in Ireland. He first represented an Irish constituency and was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland a few years later. One of his nicknames was " Orange Peel". His long-term, close political associate  Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington was Irish.
 Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, was born in a cottage at Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire on Shrove Tuesday 1788. It is said that his schoolmates nicknamed him "Pancake Bob".  His father, Sir Robert, 1st Baronet, later moved the family to Tamworth , Staffordshire. The elder Sir Robert was also an M.P. He introduced the earliest legislation to regulate working conditions of children in factories. He and Robert Owen were in accord. As P.M., Robert Peel the Younger followed the precedent set by his father and passed more factory reforms. In an earlier stint in government he'd introduced reforms to criminal law and prisons. He was a reluctant convert to the cause of Catholic Emancipation, but he succeeded in getting that passed as well. His Tamworth Manifesto began the evolution of the Tory Party into the Conservative Party.  In his spare time he is credited with developing the Tamworth Pig breed.
There is a Peel Society.  thepeelsociety.org.uk/peel_family.html
According to a history of the family which was written in the 1850s, around the time of the former P.M.'s demise, the family arrived in Lancashire from Yorkshire in 17thC.

[Skoosh]

The Glasgow Police Act of 1800 ensured the city had a modern force long before Peel & his Peelers struck a blow! 

Skoosh.

[DrT33th]

Yup.  Looking like a dead end.