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Australia Had Its Own Real Life Peaky Blinders... And They're Mostly British

Australia Had Its Own Real Life Peaky Blinders... And They're Mostly British

British criminals, sent to Australia, formed a gang similar to the Peaky Blinders.

Michael Minay

Michael Minay

The Peaky Blinders are now synonymous with Birmingham in the aftermath of World War I.

Tommy, Arthur and John Shelby are infamous on the BBC crime drama, which will enter its fourth series later this year.

The myth goes that the Peaky Blinders were nicknamed so due to their practice of stitching razor blades into the peak of their flat caps - ready for use as weapons at any point.Historian Carl Chinn, however, pisses on that party a bit. He told the Birmingham Mail:

"It's really interesting to look back at the mythologised version of the story and the reality.

"There was no real Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders were around in the 1890s, and yet the series is set in the 1920s.

"As for the razor blades? They were only beginning to come in from the 1890s and were a luxury item, much too expensive for the Peaky Blinders to have used.

"And any hard man would tell you it would be very difficult to get direction and power with a razor blade sewn into the soft part of a cap. It was a romantic notion brought about in John Douglas's novel, A Walk Down Summer Lane.


Credit: BBC

Now it's been revealed, through colour photos, that Australia had its own similar gang.

Only this time the group was made up largely of British women.

The colourised pictures look into the souls of the female 'blinders' and show them at their chilling best.

Some of them could even rival Polly for the lead woman role.

Matilda Devine was a London-born criminal who was 20 years of age when she moved to Sydney after marrying her Australian husband.

She soon started to work as a prostitute and from June 1921 to May 1925 she had 79 convictions relating to her trade, including indecent language and offensive behaviour.

Matilda Devine. Credit: Media Drum World

It gets better. In May 1925, she was imprisoned for two years after slashing a man with a razor.

She quickly earned the reputation as the 'Worst Woman in Sydney'.

But she's not alone. Valerie Lowe was arrested for breaking into an army warehouse and stealing boots and coats.

And, likewise, Ellen Kreigher is not someone to be messed with. Smiling in her photo she had just been arrested and charged with murder

Valerie Lowe. Credit: Media Drum World

Ellen Kreigher. Credit: Media Drum World

Matt Loughrey, from Ireland, is the man who has helped to turn these photos around.

He said: "For the observer, looking into the face of those that face consequence is very telling of the human condition.

"Mugshots magnify it and tell us about ourselves and our own journeys in life.

"It's raw, telling and timeless, in that the fashions may change, but the laws are much the same."

It's widely known that some time before the women arrived, the British had a habit of sending convicts over the other side of the world.

Between 1788 and 1868, around 162,000 criminals were sent to Australia by the British government to help with the colonisation.

Once Britain had lost its grip on America, the country needed a new place to ship those who had committed petty crimes due to the overcrowding of their own prisons.

History lesson over.

Featured Image Credit: BBC/Media Drum World

Topics: Peaky Blinders

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