John CARROLL

Patrick KENNAGH

Eneas McDONNELL

John PHEGAN

New South Wales Police Force

Regd. #  ????

Rank:  ALL were Special Constables

Stations:  ?

Service:  From  ? ? ?  to  9 January 1867

Awards:  ?

Born:  see below

Died on:  Wednesday  9 January 1867

Event location:  Braidwood

Cause:  Shot – Murdered

Age:  see below

Funeral date:  ?

Funeral location:  ?

Buried at:  Braidwood Cemetery

[alert_green] John CARROLL,  Patrick KENNAGH,  Eneas McDONNELL & John PHEGAN are mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance[/alert_green]  *NEED MORE INFO

John Carroll (a senior warder at the Darlinghurst Gaol) was the leader of a group of four men sworn in as special constables to search for and capture the Clarke Gang of bushrangers. The patrol consisted of Carroll, Patrick Kennagh, Eneas McDonnell and John Phegan. They were well-armed and in January, 1867 had for some time been posing as surveyors in the Braidwood area in an attempt to discover the whereabouts of the bushrangers. On the afternoon of 9 January the four men were walking through an area of very dense bush on Jinden Station, having left their horses behind on that day for some reason, when they were ambushed.

Witnesses apparently twice heard shooting in the area at that time but did not investigate until the following day. In a clearing in the bush McDonnell and Phegan were found, shot to death, and about 800 metres away Carroll and Kennagh were found, also shot to death. Carroll was found lying on his back with a neatly folded handkerchief on his chest with a one-pound note pinned to it. A large sum of money he was carrying in his pocket had not been touched. The wounds suffered by Carroll and Kennagh suggest that not only were they murdered, but that they were actually “executed”. It is generally thought (and also often disputed) that their attackers were members of the Clarke Gang, however this has never been proved.

The Sydney Morning Herald of 12 January, 1867 informed its readers of the following.

BRAIDWOOD – MURDER OF THE SPECIAL CONSTABLES.

Friday: The four special constables – Carroll, MacDonald, Fagan, and Kennagh – sent here to capture Clarke’s gang, were on a visit to a station at Jinden, when they heard that Clarke would be at a place two miles distant from there, the constables went on foot with the intention of endeavouring to capture him, and, it is presumed, were met by a lawless mob and shot dead. It is said that Carroll’s legs had been broken, and his feet turned to his head. The mournful news reached Braidwood last night, and caused universal indignation, and cast a gloom over the entire population. Mr. Griffin and Superintendent Orridge are now holding an inquiry.

Like Carroll, Kennagh and McDonnell were prison warders (McDonnell was also an ex-policeman), while Phegan had been chosen for the search because, as a former associate of the Clarkes, he knew the Braidwood area well. They had been authorised by Colonial Secretary Henry Parkes to undertake a “secret expedition for the capture of the bushranger Thomas Clarke and his associates.” They had been promised wages, reward money (if successful) and significant positions in the Public Service for their endeavours. This situation, of course, was not popular at the time with substantive New South Wales police officers. A monument was later erected in the memory of these men at the Braidwood Cemetery (and inexplicably, McDonnell is referred to as Eneas ‘McDonald’).

These murders represent the highest number of police ever killed in a single incident of this type in Australian history. It is only surpassed by the spearing of patrols of Native Mounted Police in Queensland in the 1860’s. (Ned Kelly killed three Victorian police officers in a single incident at Stringybark Creek in 1878).

Special Constable McDonnell was born in 1817,

Special Constable Carroll in 1829,

Special Constable Phegan in 1837, and

Special Constable Kennagh in 1841.

[divider_dotted]

Clarence and Richmond Examiner & New England Advertiser ( NSW )    Tuesday  12 February 1867    page 3 of 8

Meetings of sympathy with the families of the special constables recently murdered continue to be held, and much indignation is expressed at the rottenness and inefficiency of our expensive military police force. A commission, with a great preponderance of officialism in it, has been appointed, to inquire into the circumstances of the late murders of the special constables, and the state of the Braidwood district. The public have little confidence in the fitness of the commissioners.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/63665154

[divider_dotted]

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/112710985

[divider_dotted]

Police and Bushranger descendants tour bushranger sites in district

https://www.braidwoodtimes.com.au/story/3391817/police-and-bushranger-descendants-tour-bushranger-sites-in-district/

[divider_dotted]

A bloody ambush.  Clarkes to be retried.  pdf

http://www.bwdmag.com.au/BWD_11/%20BWD11_2223.pdf

[divider_dotted]

John WARD

Late of  ?

New South Wales Police Force

Regd. #  ????

Rank:  Senior Constable – appointed 1 May 1863

Stations: ?, Coonabarabran – Death

Service:  From  1 February 1858  to  4 February 1865 = 6+ years Service

Awards:  ?

Born:  ? ? 1829 in England

Died on:  4 February 1865

Age:  35 – 36

Cause:  Murdered – shot

Event location:   Barney’s Reef

Event date:   3 February 1865

Offender – Sam Poo – arrested  15 February 1865

Funeral date:  ? ? ?

Funeral location:  ‘Birriwa Station’, Coonabarabran

Buried at:  ‘Birriwa Station’, 3894 Castlereagh Hwy, Birriwa ( between Gulgong & Dunedoo )

 Memorial located at: Coonabarabran Police Station – Memorial plaque.

Monday  28 January 2013 – Memorial Gardens at ‘Birriwa Station’ were dedicated to John Ward

[alert_green]JOHN is mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance[/alert_green]

 [divider_dotted]

FURTHER INFORMATION IS NEEDED ABOUT THIS PERSON, THEIR LIFE, THEIR CAREER AND THEIR DEATH.

PLEASE SEND PHOTOS AND INFORMATION TO Cal

[divider_dotted]

May they forever Rest In Peace

[divider_dotted]

On the morning of 3 February, 1865 Constable Ward was returning to Coonabarabran from a prisoner escort to Mudgee. Near the locality known as Barney’s Reef he was informed that a Chinese gold miner, Sam Poo, thought to be mentally unbalanced, started sticking up people on the road to Mudgee.  He also kidnapped and raped a young woman. Ward was told that Poo was nearby in the scrub. After a short search Constable Ward located the offender’s camp and approached him. When the offender saw the constable he ran into the bush.  Ward rode after him, and when he caught up, called on him to stand and drop his weapon ( a cut down shotgun ).  Sam Poo aimed at the trooper and said “You policeman – me fire”.

The Trooper leapt from his horse and tried to use the animal as cover as he drew his Colt navy revolver.  Ward‘s hesitancy in shooting the Chinaman proved to be fatal for him, for Sam Poo fired, hitting the policeman in the pelvic area.  Ward fell to the ground, discharging one shot from his Colt in the process.  He then fired twice more at the Chinaman, who was running away through the bush.

The trooper lay bleeding on the ground until he was found by Mr M J F Plunkett, the squatter on whose run the shoot out had taken place. Plunkett arranged for Ward to be taken to his homestead, and sent for the doctor who lived 50 miles away. The doctor arrived the next day, but examination showed that Ward was beyond medical help.

The trooper told Mr Plunkett that he knew he was dying and asked what would become of his wife and family. Later he dictated a full statement about his encounter with Sam Poo to the squatter. Ward said he was a member of the Church of England, and asked Plunkett to pray for him. This the squatter did using a book of Common Prayer. The trooper then asked the squatter to send for his wife and family. However, John Ward died shortly after giving his request, passing away on 4th February 1865. His family arrived at the homestead after he had been buried.

A meeting was held in Mudgee, where a large sum of money was raised for Senior-Constable John Ward’s widow and children. This support acknowledged the supreme sacrifice the trooper had made in the performance of this duty.

The murderer, Chinese bushranger Sam Poo, thought to be mentally unbalanced, was later captured and hanged, as described by the Clarence and Richmond Examiner of 2 January, 1866.

EXECUTION, AT BATHURST: Wednesday’s Free Press states that on the previous day, the Chinese convict Sam Poo, who at the last assizes was convicted of the murder of constable Ward, suffered the extreme penalty of the law, within the precincts of the gaol. In the absence of any of his countrymen outside the prison walls, three Chinese prisoners, who are at present confined in Darlinghurst Gaol, were brought to see the end of Sam Poo, there were also about a dozen other persons present besides the police and the officers of the gaol. The wretched man, who, ever since his apprehension has been quite weak in intellect, appeared perfectly unconscious of his fate, and until his arms were pinioned by the executioners, stood in the door of his cell clapping his hands. The ceremony of pinioning over, he was led to the gallows without speaking a word, or even lifting his head. The rope was fixed, the bolt drawn and Sam Poo ceased to exist. The body was, after the lapse of little more than half an hour, cut down, and taken away for burial.

The senior constable was born in England in 1829 and joined the police force on 1 February, 1858. In 1862 he became a member of the newly-formed New South Wales Police Force as a mounted trooper. At the time of his death he was stationed at Coonabarabran.

He was described as 29 years old, 5′ 10 1/2″ tall, had brown hair and blue eyes and his complexion was fair.  Ward was promoted to Senior Constable on 1st May 1863.

[divider_dotted]

Fallen officer is honoured 150 years on

IT’S not unusual that the state’s most senior policemen, the mayor and local MP would turn out on Monday to attend the memorial service for an officer lost in the line of duty.

Senior Constable John Ward was shot at point blank range and died the next day from his appalling injuries. The dignitaries stood in silence enduring steady rain as the prayers and dedications were delivered at Birriwa Station near Coonabarabran.

What makes the scene rather remarkable is that the officer’s blood was spilt almost one and a half centuries ago.

Sam Poo, who committed the murder, achieved fleeting infamy as Australia’s only Chinese bushranger.

The gold prospector, apparently weary of thin pickings on the Talbragar claims, decided to switch jobs and take up bushranging. Fellow diggers were alarmed by news a man reported to look like a Chinaman had stuck up a woman and her little girl on the Mudgee Road. There were more reports of a Chinaman ”bailing up” travellers.

Ward, married with five children and with five years’ experience in the police force, was soon on his trail. On seeing his man after some hard riding, he called out ”Put down that gun.”

Poo responded: ”Me fire: you policeman.” And he did.

A stockman took the officer to his homestead. The nearest doctor travelled 80 kilometres to tend to him, arriving the next day.

By then Ward was reportedly beyond the reach of human aid and died soon after.

Two weeks later three constables aided by a ”smart half-caste Aboriginal stockman and tracker Harry Hughes” found Poo hiding in scrub. The fugitive was shot in the neck. He recovered at Mudgee Hospital and was later convicted of murder. He was hanged at Bathurst Jail in 1866.

Fast forward to the service last week, part of the NSW Police Force recognition of the sacrifice made by officers over 150 years of policing.

Inspector Scott Tanner, of the Mudgee area command, said: ”We were looking at how to mark the 150 years of policing. We have a plaque in Coonabarabran police station to John Ward and then there was the loss of Dave Rixon [the senior constable shot dead in Tamworth last March] so we started thinking about how to also remember John Ward – he walked the same streets that we walk today. When I first came here I lived in the house he had lived in.”

[divider_dotted]

Homestead’s website to preserve history

The owners of Birriwa Homestead, Mary and Keith Salvat, are working to rediscover and preserve the history of the sandstone house.

Mrs Salvat said she wanted to use a new website being established at www.birriwahomestead.org to collect the stories surrounding the homestead, the balls it hosted and the families who lived or worked there.

Mrs Salvat said she wanted to create an opportunity for families with connections to the house to reach each other and share stories that could otherwise be lost.

“We’re just beginning a journey of rediscovering the history,” she said.

The website is under development, and currently consists of a form that can be used to submit stories to be published on the website, or to ask to be alerted when the site launches.

“It’s a very democratic website. Everyone owns their own intellectual property,” Mrs Salvat said.

“The purpose is really to act as a library – a 21st Century library.”

She said a house was bricks and mortar, but at the same time, it contained a subtle energy left by the people who had lived there or developed a connection with the place.

The Salvats have owned Birriwa Homestead for 15 years, and maintained and restored it while living in Sydney before moving there permanently in 2009.

They are often visited by descendants of the families who owned the house in the past – the Lanes, Cowards, Lowes and McMasters – including a 90-year-old woman who remembered playing in the garden as a very small child.

The property was opened on Monday for the dedication of a memorial garden surrounding the grave of Senior Constable John Ward, who was shot by a bushranger at Birriwa in 1865.

As well as police and descendents of Senior Constable Ward, guests included people who were raised at the homestead, a former Birriwa jackaroo, and a neighbour whose family had lived on the next property for three generations.

The memorial garden includes infant graves alongside the grave of Senior Constable Ward, and others that are unidentified as the stones and crosses have been washed away.

Mrs Salvat said working with the police on the project had been a wonderful experience.

“They were very respectful and incredibly well-mannered,” she said.

“This has been a beautiful journey for me and my husband over the last 12 months.”

Mr Salvat said the memorial garden made the grave site more approachable for members of the public who wouldn’t like to intrude on a private residence, while the planned website would allow visitors to read about the memorial before visiting.

Mrs Salvat plans to invite people with relatives buried at Birriwa Homestead to visit the property in autumn to plant trees that can bear plaques naming the people interred there.

http://www.mudgeeguardian.com.au/story/1267854/homesteads-website-to-preserve-history/

[divider_dotted]

Thomas SMYTH

Late of  ?

New South Wales Police Force

Regd. #  ????

Rank:  Senior Sergeant – Death

Stations:  ?, Lambing Flat, Albury – Death

Service:  From  8 February 1858  to  4 September 1864 =  6+ years Service

Awards:   No find on It’s An Honour

Born:   ? ? 1830

Died on:   29 September 1864 in the Imperial Hotel, Albury

Age:  33 – 34

Cause:   Shot – Murdered

Event location:  Doodle Cooma Swamp

Event date:   4 September 1864

Funeral date:   ? ? ?

Funeral location:   ?

Funeral Parlour:

Buried at:   Albury Cemetery, 460 Buckingham St, North Albury, NSW

 Memorial located at:   Memorial stone and plaque are located 2 kms west of Henty on Pleasant Hills Rd ( the Lockhart Rd )

[alert_green]THOMAS  IS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance[/alert_green]

 [divider_dotted]

FURTHER INFORMATION IS NEEDED ABOUT THIS PERSON, THEIR LIFE, THEIR CAREER AND THEIR DEATH.

PLEASE SEND PHOTOS AND INFORMATION TO Cal

[divider_dotted]

May they forever Rest In Peace

[divider_dotted]

In late September, 1864 the sergeant was camped in the bush with three troopers near Albury during a search for bushrangers, when two men, one of whom the bushranger Daniel Morgan, crept up and fired several shots into the police tent. One shot hit the sergeant, entering his shoulder and exiting through his back. Despite these wounds the sergeant was able to return fire, forcing the offenders to retreat and escape. Sergeant Smyth was soon treated by a doctor however he died of the effects of the wound within a couple of days. The vicious Morgan was shot to death by a farmhand in April, 1865.

The Empire newspaper dated 5 October, 1864 printed the following brief account of the incident.

DEATH OF SERGEANT SMYTH – It is with deep regret that we have to record the death of Senior-Sergeant Smyth, at Albury, on Thursday night, from the wound he received in the cowardly night attack a few weeks back at Doodle Cooma Swamp. It was at first hoped that the unwearied care of Dr Wilkinson would have brought him round; but haemorrhage having set in, little hopes were entertained of his recovery, and he gradually sank until he yielded up his brave spirit on Thursday night. He was a very deserving officer, possessed of more than average intelligence and shrewdness, which eminently fitted him for a police officer. His courage was unquestionable. Previous to his being stationed at Albury he was at Lambing Flat, on leaving which town be was presented with an address by the inhabitants, expressive of their appreciation of his valuable services in the repression of crime on that large goldfield.

The McIvor Times and Rodney Advertiser of 23 September, 1864 printed a detailed account of the incident.

“THE BUSHRANGER MORGAN.

A party of police, consisting of Senior Sergeant Smyth, Senior Constable Baxter, Constables Connor, and Maguire, and a blackfellow named Jimmy Reed, were camped on Sunday night at Dougal’s [sic] Swamp, near Keighran’s station. They had just got tea, and were lying in the tent yarning, as is usually done by persons camped out. They had no sentry on guard – that duty being delayed until they “turned in” for the night. Suddenly their discourse was cut short by a volley being fired into the tent amongst them. Sergeant Smyth immediately jumped to his feet, calling on his men to follow him – he firing two shots in the direction he fancied the volley came from. The men who rushed out of the tent immediately after him, scoured the bush in every direction, as well as the darkness would allow them, but failed to find any traces of the ruffians; but, from the tracks discovered at daylight next morning, they must have overrun the bushrangers in the dark.

“They remained in the scrub about an hour, when they, after some consultation, deemed it better to return to the tent, which, considering that the night was dark, arid the surrounding scrub would completely shelter the attacking party, was, to say the least, attended with some danger. Baxter and Connor crawled on their hands and knees to the tent, and found Smyth lying on his back dangerously wounded, and fast bleeding to death. They took everything out of the tent and, having covered poor Smyth up in the few blankets they had, they managed to convey him to Keighran’s station, he still bleeding and suffering great pain, where they remained until daylight. Constable Baxter and the blackfellow then took up the track near the tent, and started to follow the ruffians up. The other two constables proceeded to the Ten Mile Creek, to give information and obtain medical aid for Smyth.

“Superintendent McLerie who was proceeding to Sydney on sick leave, happened to be at that place; and he immediately ordered his buggy to be taken off its springs, and the body to be used as a stretcher to convey Smyth to Ten Mile Creek. From the position of the bullet holes in the tent, there cannot have been less than five bushrangers. There are seven bullet holes in the tent; the bullets were picked up inside of it, some of them belonging to a large bore pistol. Constable Connor had a very narrow escape. He was lying down, leaning on his elbow, in the tent, when one of the balls went through the sleeve of his coat, inflicting a slight wound about two inches above the elbow joint. Superintendent McLerie has deemed it necessary to return to Albury for the present. Sub-inspector Morrow and a party of police have started from Albury in pursuit of the bushrangers; and Sub-inspector Zouch has left Wagga Wagga on similar duty.

“A strange incident occurred in connection with this cowardly attack. Shortly after the party were camped, two men came up and were admiring the site chosen for the camp, remarking that they could not have chosen better. They are well known as bush “telegraphs,” being the two men to whose house Sergeant Carroll traced Morgan some time back. Sergeant Smyth’s wound is a very dangerous one. The ball entered immediately above the nipple of the left breast, following the course of the ribs, and came out under the left shoulder-blade; so that, while the wound may not be considered mortal, yet fatal results may ensue from it. The people are greatly excited on this murderous attack, which in cold-blooded treachery far surpasses the Lachlan escort robbery.”

The Empire newspaper dated 5 October, 1864 printed the following brief account of the death of the sergeant.

“DEATH OF SERGEANT SMYTH
It is with deep regret that we have to record the death of Senior-Sergeant Smyth, at Albury, on Thursday night, from the wound he received in the cowardly night attack a few weeks back at Doodle Cooma Swamp. It was at first hoped that the unwearied care of Dr Wilkinson would have brought him round; but haemorrhage having set in, little hopes were entertained of his recovery, and he gradually sank until he yielded up his brave spirit on Thursday night. He was a very deserving officer, possessed of more than average intelligence and shrewdness, which eminently fitted him for a police officer. His courage was unquestionable. Previous to his being stationed at Albury he was at Lambing Flat, on leaving which town he was presented with an address by the inhabitants, expressive of their appreciation of his valuable services in the repression of crime on that large goldfield.”

In April 1865 the vicious and cowardly bushranger Morgan was shot to death by a farmhand in at Peechelba Station, near Wangaratta (Vic).

The sergeant was born in 1830 and joined the police force on 8 February, 1858. In 1862 he became a member of the newly-formed New South Wales Police Force. At the time of his death he was stationed at Albury.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/30580797

[divider_dotted]

Senior Sergeant Thomas Smyth to get a proper gravesite after he was murdered by bushranger ‘Mad Dog’ Dan Morgan in 1864.

7 Dec 2017, 7:55 a.m.

It’s taken 153-years but moves are finally underway to give some restitution to Senior Sergeant Thomas Smyth, who was murdered by notorious bushranger ‘Mad Dog’ Dan Morgan in the hills near Henty in 1864.

Sergeant Smyth’s unmarked grave is now set to receive a memorial headstone to rectify what is believed to have been an administrative oversight lost in the 1951 transferral of Albury’s three cemeteries from church to council.

Police officers, both active and retired, had bemoaned as “a sad end and undignified burial” of Senior Sergeant Smyth after he was shot trying to recapture the bushranger, who had been terrorising the region.

In 1864, ‘Mad Dog’ Morgan had recently committed his second and third murders before he arrived in the Henty area. Widespread fear and an outcry from the press at the time saw the reward for Morgan’s capture raised to £1000, and parties of special police were sent to track and capture him.

On September 4, Senior Sergeant Smyth had set up camp with three troopers in the Henty hills, when Morgan and another man crept up and fired several shots into the police tent, hitting the sergeant in the shoulder and exiting through his back. Morgan later said he had been watching the camp for some time.

Despite his wounds, the sergeant ran out of the tent and returned fire, forcing the offenders to retreat. The wounded officer then collapsed. He was transferred to Kiamba and then Albury where doctors claimed he was recovering, before he hemorrhaged several times.

The Empire newspaper dated October 5, 1864 reported that “he yielded up his brave spirit on Thursday night. He was a very deserving officer, possessed of more than average intelligence and shrewdness, which eminently fitted him for a police officer. His courage was unquestionable”.

Senior Sergeant Smyth was buried in an unmarked grave in an Albury cemetery, however there is a memorial stone on Pleasant Hills Road just outside Henty.

NSW Police is hoping to rectify other unmarked police graves. Dan Morgan was holding hostages when he was shot dead in Victoria by a farmhand in April,1865.

This excerpt is from an Australian Government site about bushrangers:

“Daniel Morgan brought discredit to the popular ‘currency heroes’ by his mixture of violence, abuse and seemingly meaningless murders. Morgan claimed his innocence at his first conviction in 1854, at the diggings near Castlemaine, which he said was ‘framed‘ by a squatter. During his time at Pentridge Prison, he developed a violent dislike for police. Upon his release, he began a campaign against society at large and the police in particular.

Morgan once took issue with an overseer’s wife when the man was away on business, demanding money from her as he forced her against a blazing fire until she suffered severe burns to her legs. Morgan also tried to burn squatter Isaac Vincent by setting fire to his woolshed after he had tied Vincent to a nearby fence. After Morgan bailed up coaches, he would stampede the horses – sending them and their drivers to destruction.

Eventually he was shot and captured in 1865 after being outwitted by a nursemaid and station hand at Peelhelba Station near Wangaratta, owned by the McPhersons.”

The story Restitution for murdered police officer after outcry over his unmarked grave | Photos first appeared on The Daily Advertiser.

http://www.theland.com.au/story/5105955/restitution-for-murdered-police-officer-after-outcry-over-his-unmarked-grave-photos/?cs=4951

[divider_dotted]