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Original Text (Annotation: EAW022331 / 1068661)
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This is Ashwin Street where in December 1881, PC George Cole was shot and killed attempting an arrest of a suspect burglar at the church which still stands on the western side of the road.
Cole who had then recently been married for a few months, was then living in Roseberry Place close by, was later buried in Abney Park Cemetery.
His murderer who escaped capture, left behind a chisel with a name etched into the handle. Forensically examined, a new science for the period, it revealed the letters 'Orrock'. Although time passed, the culprit was later captured and convicted on the evidence of a witness who had received his boasting admission he had shot the officer. Thomas Orrock paid the ultimate penalty after conviction at the Old Bailey, and he was hung in November 1884. '