Grace Helen Burgess (1894-1924) was an Anglo-Irish barmaid and undercover Birmingham policewoman during the 1920s. She was originally assigned to assist Inspector Chester Campbell with rooting out and destroying the criminal elements of Birmingham, but she ultimately fell in love with Peaky Blinders boss Tommy Shelby and married him in 1924. She was murdered by the Mafia in retaliation for John Shelby's murder of Angel Changretta that same year.
Biography[]
Grace Helen Burgess was born in County Galway, Ireland in 1889 to an Anglican Anglo-Irish family. Her father served in the Royal Irish Constabulary until he was murdered by the IRA during the Anglo-Irish War, and she was motivated by revenge to join her father's colleague Inspector Chester Campbell in assembling a team of "Specials" to investigate the IRA's possible role in an arms shipment theft in Birmingham in 1919. She was assigned to work as an undercover policewoman, and she became a barmaid at The Garrison Pub after impressing the landlord Harry Fenton with her singing voice. In this capacity, she spied on Peaky Blinders leader Tommy Shelby, and she deduced that he, and not his older brother Arthur Shelby, was the real leader of the gang. She later became intrigued by Tommy, who invited her to the Cheltenham Races; she agreed on the terms that she could sing at the bar once a week. However, Tommy intended to offer her up to Billy Kimber as a sweetener if he partnered with the Blinders, and she was sent to his house when he agreed. However, Shelby prevented her from being raped after saying that she had gonorrhea.
Burgess was later offered a job with the Peaky Blinders as their records keeper, and she discovered that payments were being made to Daniel Owen, a gangster beieved to have been killed by Tommy that same year. She told Campbell that the guns would be in Owen's grave, and she then resigned, saying that her job was complete; she then turned down Campbell's marriage proposal. Campbell suspected that she had developed feelings for Shelby, and he failed to kill him; Burgess ran back to Shelby's side to confess her betrayal. She was interrupted when Kimber's men attacked the Garrison Pub, and Polly Shelby told her that, while Tommy might forgive her betrayal, she never would. Burgess then headed to the train station to prepare to leave for America, and she was confronted there by Campbell, who intended to shoot her. However, she shot him in the leg through her handbag and managed to escape.
Burgess settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she married the rich banker Clive Macmillan. In 1922, she returned to London to see a fertility doctor, but she intended to reach out to Shelby, twice failing to do so. However, she succeeded in reuniting with Shelby at his house and having a sexual reunion, and she later discovered that she was pregnant with his child. She gave birth to Charles Shelby, and, after her husband's suicide upon hearing the truth, she married Tommy Shelby in 1924, buying a house together. Sadly, she was shot at the formal party by Vicente Changretta's Mafia hitman in an act of vengeance against the Peaky Blinders for the death of his son, causing Tommy to become distraught and full of anger against the Mafia.