The History Of The Most Feared All-Female Gang In London

The Forty Elephants didn’t work totally alone. They were associated with the all-male Elephant and Castle gang who came from the same neighborhood. Much of the money they stole ended up in the hands of these men. At one point, according to Wondrium Daily, the head of the Forty Elephants -– their “queen” Alice Diamond –- was in a relationship with one of the Elephant and Castle gang, while another member was the brother of the Forty Elephants’ second-in-command, Maggie Hill.

Diamond was strict about gang members’ relationships with men. Before entering a romantic relationship or getting married, they had to make sure she approved. The men they were involved with needed to be trustworthy and discreet since they might learn information about the gang. In 1925, when one of the Forty Elephants married without her approval, Diamond and Hill led an attack on the newlyweds, known as the Battle of Lambeth. Diamond and Hill both landed in prison, and the Forty Elephants got a new “queen,” Lillian Rose Kendall, but she wasn’t as formidable as Diamond, and the gang began to decline (via Wondrium Daily).