Thomas ‘Datchy’ Gilham
is 18 years old and 5'8" tall, with
hazel eyes and brown hair. He has a mole on the front of his neck and another on
his right shoulder, with a scar on the outside of his left arm. Unmarried, he
has been crewing vessels out of Harwich in Essex and only recently returned to
live with his widowed mother in Kent. An illegitimate child with a pronounced
stammer, he has grown into a capable man. Bitterly resentful of the past, he
smuggles as much to flout the law as to earn money. He comes into the Blues
under the pseudonym Dachet Grey, and uses the name Thomas Carpenter.
Another character from "A Devil's Dozen" by Marian Newell
Book Description
Violence,
love, loyalty and betrayal among the smugglers who terrorise the coasts
of southern England. For years the Aldington Blues and the Burmarsh
Gang have fought each other over the lucrative smuggling trade in Kent.
The rivalry was bitter and the stakes were high. Now the feud between
the two smuggler leaders, George Ransley and James Hogben, is played out
in deadly earnest. While their men grow rich, fall in love or gamble
away their loot, the intense struggle between Ransley and Hogben follows
a twisted route through bloodshed, treachery and wealth. But times are
changing and the spectre of the gallows hangs over them all when a
popular naval officer is killed by a smuggler. As the government men
close in, the gangs join forces. But will it be enough to stave off
defeat, capture and death?Meticulously researched and based on
contemporary court papers and other records, “A Devil’s Dozen”
recreates the vanished world of the smugglers who were once the kings of the British underworld.
recreates the vanished world of the smugglers who were once the kings of the British underworld.
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