Dubious Kelly Relics: Thomas Curnow's Signal Lamp and Ned Kelly's Quill Pen [Sharon Hollingsworth]

(Updated April 8)

There have been many dubious Kelly Gang relics floating around through the years but I have just read about some I had not heard of before.

It seems that Western Australia was rife with relics of the siege as concerns Glenrowan schoolmaster Thomas Curnow and railway guard Frank Bell.

From the Sunday Times of Aug. 31, 1919

"A relic of the Kelly Gang is in Perth in the possession of Actor-Manager Ted Cole. It was given him by Guard Bell in charge of the train the Kellys planned to capsize. The said souvenir is a large red pocket handkerchief used by Schoolmaster Curnow over an ordinary candle lamp to stop the police special."

The article went on to relate how Curnow got a hold of a lamp and covered it with a red handkerchief to stop the train. (Don't worry, I am going to be debunking all this in a second!)

Then we read again in the paper (18 years later) where railway guard (Frank) Bell had passed down a relic to his son, also named Frank Bell who sent a photo of it to his son, also named Frank Bell (!?). What was it? Glad you asked! It was the actual "lamp" used by Curnow to stop the train!

From that same article in the Sunday Times of Oct. 3, 1937,  it spoke of train guard Bell:

"..whose quick eye it was that sighted the red handkerchief covered lamp waved by schoolmaster Curnow at Glenrowan and so stopped the train containing about 100 police troopers and their horses.....the historic lamp was souvenired by Bell during the subsequent Battle of Glenrowan."
 

Then, there was yet another article concerning Curnow...

From the Sunday Times of Aug. 10, 1947 in an article called "W.A. Man's Relic of Kelly Gang's Last Stand" it tells of a 77 yr old man whose family knew Curnow post-Glenrowan. Curnow gave the family a piece of the scarf he used to stop the train which this man still had in his possession. However, this gentleman relates what Curnow told him and his family and much of it was oh-so-wrong or maybe just mis-remembered? Stuff like how Curnow was riding to get a doctor when he saw Dan and Steve forcing railway workers to pull up the line and how he pleaded to be let go and they allowed him to proceed and he then went down the line where he heard the train coming and took off his own scarf and wrapped it around a signal lamp.

Ok, let's break this all down. Even though there was an illustration for contemporary newspapers (as well as reports) of Curnow using a lantern to stop the train, he himself testified that:

"I quietly prepared everything, including the red llama scarf, candle and matches..."

[later after hearing the train coming]

"I immediately caught up the candle, scarf, and matches and ran down the line to meet the train. I ran on until I got to where I could see straight before me some distance along the line, and where those in the train would be able to see the danger signal. I then lit the candle and held it behind the red scarf."

BAM! There it is!!!

If you think about it, it made more sense from a security standpoint to have a candle possibly stuck down in his pocket or carried close to his body while in transit down the railway line rather than running the risk of being caught out carrying even an unlit lamp/lantern by a member of the gang or one of their sympathisers. That (to mix metaphors) would have rung an alarm bell, the gig would have been up, and the hammer would have dropped!

In "Last of the Bushrangers" Superintendent Francis Hare related that:


"It afterwards turned out the man was Mr. Curnow, the local schoolmaster, who, having no lamp by which to stop the train, got a red scarf and held a candle behind it when he heard the train approaching, but, having left his wife alone, he hurried back for fear some of the gang might see him. After the guard of the pilot had related this story to me...."

So we see that there was no lantern or lamp nor red handkerchief. Perhaps the chap with the bit of scarf does (or rather did) have a true relic despite his error filled narrative? Concerning the earlier narrative, there were not 100 police troopers on the special train, there were around a couple dozen people in total on the train including police, black trackers, newspapermen, O'Connor's wife and her sister, plus a civilian volunteer.


Ok, let's pick apart the earlier bit with the W.A. man with the relic. Steve Hart was with the railway workers for the lifting of the rails, Dan was not. Curnow was not on the way to get a doctor in the middle of the night when he met the Kellys. He met them later on in the day while out buggy riding with his family. The doctor part might have come from where Curnow testified about how he wanted to get his wife, baby and sister to safety at his mother-in-law's place after Ned let them leave the Inn but he was worried about the gang checking up on them at his home so he left a note saying his sister was ill and they went for medicine (however his wife was restless and upset so they went back to the house..this was before the stopping of the train). He did not use his own scarf, he used his sister's and we know it was not a signal lamp, it was a candle!

 How can they get so much so wrong in these reminiscences?

Talking about getting stuff wrong, read on to the second instance of somewhat dubious relics I am relating here. For that we go back to Victoria.


There was this in the Barrier Miner, July 29, 1924

NED KELLY'S PEN FOUND. 
 
"Workmen engaged in dismantling the interior of the Melbourne Gaol yesterday found enclosed in an envelope a quill pen used by Ned Kelly, the outlaw, before his execution in 1880. On the envelope were the words, "Ned Kelly's pen." The initials of Mr. J. B. Castieau, who was the governor of the gaol at the time, were also on the envelope."

Ok, this is a long shot but is a possibility. But as I note below, Ned was unable to write anything other than signing an X due to his damaged arm, so why would he have a pen?

Then a dozen years later there was another mention of Ned's quill pen in the papers.

 In the Sunday Times of May 2, 1937 there was an article entitled Ned Kelly's Quill Pen. In the article it related about publicans, Mr. and Mrs. Muldoon, of a Melbourne tavern who had been offered a relic for sale by Jerry the builder and his brother which was "the pen Ned Kelly wrote his last letter on earth with."

When asked whom Ned wrote to with it the reply was

 "Why, to his sainted mother, it was his last message to her who loved him. And everybody knows where he got the ink..."

He went on to say:

 "I got the story from an old ex-warden of the gaol. He had part charge of Ned and worked in the quill-pen to help him in sending out a message to his poor lonely widowed mother-away up in the country where Ned was captured."...."Well, then," he continued, handling the relic reverently as if it were a fragment from sacred Jerusalem, or a chip from Caesar's tomb, 'Ned tore a linen pocket from his prison jacket to act as note paper, opened a small vein in his arm and used the blood to write a short message to his mother. That's his own life-blood you see on the quill....."I got to know the son of a long ago prisoner who cleaned the cell out after Ned's execution. He told me how his dad had found the quill-pen in the cell where it had been laid down after the condemned man had written his message. He never thought it of any value till I accidentally heard of it and bought it from him for a mere trifle...."

The tavern owners, convinced it was the real deal, purchased it off him.

Then to everyone's consternation:

"A week later half a dozen elderly Hibernian ladies, excited and fuming, alighted from a Fitzroy tram at the corner nearest to what is left of the old Melbourne Gaol. Each had a Ned Kelly quill-pen, all old and crusted with the bushranger's blood."


These ladies along with a local parish priest traced the seller's lodgings and come to find out he had absconded. The landlady told them that:


"About a fortnight ago, Jerry and his brother had brought home from the Melbourne market a live goose..."

You can guess the rest of the story! The goose was cooked (as were the geese of the gullible buyers!) and the feathers were stripped, and the quills, well, you know what became of those!

Quite a silly tale that should never have been if they knew their Kelly story. Ned was unable to write at all while in gaol, only being able to sign an X due to his injured arm and his mother was in the same gaol with him at the time not up in the Kelly country where he was captured!

In closing, there was this bit re the pen from earlier in the newspaper article that I saved till last:


"It's a wonder the police let him have anything at all," said Mrs. Muldoon, whose opinion of the Law that hanged poor Ned was not of a very complimentary nature.

"They tried not to...They were afraid poison might be worked in so they had a special watch on him day and night. They couldn't even trust the regular warders."

That last bit there is a good segue to my next blog posting entitled "Ned Kelly and Poison Pen Letters?" Stay tuned for that!

Who escorted Mrs. Devine to the Jerilderie courthouse? [Sharon Hollingsworth]

Mary Devine in later life (courtesy of Trove)

In an earlier blog post called   "For Jerilderie's Constable Devine life after the Kelly Gang's visit was anything but divine! I detailed what happened to Sr. Constable George Devine during the Kelly Gang raid and what happened to him afterward when he had to endure taunts and jests from the public for those events. In this posting I detail about his wife, Mrs. (Mary) Devine, and her dealings with the gang.

Just prior to the Kelly Gang's visit Mrs. Devine had a prophetic dream.

According to the West Coast Times of February 27, 1879:

It was half past eleven o'clock, and a clear fine night. Mrs. Devine awoke out of a troubled sleep and told her husband, in a state of alarm, that she had dreamt she had seen the Kellys crawling along the police fence, that he (Devine) and Richards were on the other side and did not know that the Kellys were near them. She imagined that the Kellys were taking aim at her husband and his companion with their firearms, and she was unable to warn them of the danger.

But how were any of them to know that the dream was about to become reality..the Kellys showed up soon after!

At the time of the Kelly Gang's visit Mrs. Devine had three children (according to Corfield) and was pregnant with a fourth.
 She was still in her night-gown when Ned Kelly roused her husband and Constable Richards up and then bailed them up. When Ned threatened to shoot Constable Devine (according to Peter Dunne, telegraph operator)  "Mrs. Devine, on her knees, begged for him not to do so, and he apparently acceded to her request, saying he would have done so but for her." She was assured that no harm would come to her husband or family if she would not raise the alarm to anyone for the duration of their stay.

She then had to show them around the place so they could confiscate all of the weapons and ammunition. She also prepared food for them at Ned's request.

Constable Devine was worried about Ned "interfering with his wife" and Ned was quite offended and said that he had never offered offense to any woman and that she would be safe.

In Ian Jones's "Ned Kelly: A Short Life" he relates instances of Mrs. Devine's dealings as concerns the Kellys as told in interviews with her granddaughter a century later. One instance was where Ned Kelly himself helped Mrs. Devine to empty a tub of water her children had been bathed in earlier that evening. He said she should not try to do it "in her condition." Jones goes on to relate that Mrs. Devine said of Ned that he was "the kindest man she ever met."

The gang settled in for the night, taking turns sleeping and standing guard.

From Rev Gribble's article in Leisure Time (1895)

During the night it was arranged that the whole company should occupy the parlour of the barracks. The night being excessively hot, the sergeant's wife begged for a breath of air, and, feeling faint, said she should scream if the door was not opened. Steve Hart, raising his revolver at her, threatened to shoot her if she did not keep quiet. She replied, "Little do mothers know what they are rearing their children for!" "I would shoot my own mother," was the savage retort, "if she didn't do as I told her!"

But. I had read elsewhere where she and the children were allowed to sleep in the bedroom apart from the others.

The next morning was Sunday and Mrs. Devine always went over to the courthouse across the road to prepare the place for Mass for the visiting priest (it was on rotation between two priests, Father Slattery and Father Kiely, that particular Sunday was Father Kiely's turn).
Ned decided that she best stick to her routine, as her missing doing her duty there would draw questions and visitors. Here is where it gets sticky. Those who were in Jerilderie and actually knew the parties involved (schoolteacher William Elliott and Rev. Gribble) both avow that it was Dan Kelly who escorted her over and helped her clean up and place flowers. I tend to believe it was Dan. However, there are other reports, red herrings if you will, that throw us off that scent!

Some of the early newspaper articles just say "Kelly" escorted her. I suppose it depends on who read what as to what is told in books. Constable Thomas McIntyre in his narrative has that it was Ned. Hare and Chomley (who most assuredly had read Hare's book) both say it was Joe Byrne who went with her, as did Frank Clune. Ian Jones has that it was Dan Kelly as did Max Brown and John Molony. Very telling that no one ever said it was Steve Hart!


It is astonishing to me what Joseph Ashmead in his account had to say. I can only shake my head in disbelief! He not only has Mrs. Devine being called Mrs. Ryan, but has Ned helping her at the courthouse and then has Ned and Joe attending Mass with her and the other trooper's wife from the police station (remember, Richards was unmarried)! Even more unbelievable, he also had about the time on a ship to London when he met Father O'Dwyer(!!!!) who claimed he was the one who held the service that Sunday in Jerilderie and that he noticed two strong men in the front with the wives of the police that he later realised were Ned Kelly and Joe Byrne! What codswallop and pig-swill! Yet, even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then, so we should not always (but in this case we can) dismiss Ashmead totally out of hand!

And here is something else as concerns this episode from the Sunday Times (Perth) May 23, 1926 wherein George Devine was being taunted in later years:

"...he got a plentiful though untruthful reminder that Ned Kelly had taken his (Devine's) wife to a ball at Jerilderie and similar yarns more or less mangled, untrue and improbable."

How did a visit to the courthouse to set up for Mass turn into a visit to a gala ball?


That same day, just after lunch time, newspaper editor Samuel Gill (in search of news to print) went by the police station to chat with Constable Devine to see what was going on with the four new recruits seen around town. Mrs Devine cryptically told him "I cannot tell you anything. Run, for your life is in danger!"

That set in motion events that led to him alerting others and them entering the bank as the Kellys were there for the holdup with him narrowly escaping to the chagrin of Ned who wanted Gill to print copies of  the Jerilderie letter for him! Whew! As an aside, during the time the Kellys were there Ned Kelly read some of his Jerilderie letter to Mrs. Devine but she could remember none of it two days later.

After the robbery when the gang were ready to leave town they left constables Devine and Richards and two telegraph-men locked up. He gave the key to Mrs. Devine and  he told her to not let them out until half past 7 or that he would "burn the house down over her and her children's heads" if she or anyone else let them out before that time. After the Kellys left others rushed over to the police station to free the prisoners but Mrs. Devine steadfastly refused to open the door or give them the key. Her husband and the others had to wait about an hour and a half before the time Ned appointed for them to be released. Of course, she was just protecting her husband as she did not wish for him to pursue the Kellys and possibly get killed. Ned had taken the police horses and all their guns and ammo and even if they could have borrowed some of each by the time they were released the gang were well away.

The Devines stayed on in Jerilderie for a couple of more years, much later they wound up living in West Australia where Mrs. Devine outlived her husband by 6 years dying in September of 1932.

UPDATE- new papers are being added all the time at trove and one from 1926 in which Mrs Devine says it was STEVE HART who escorted her has come online. My goodness! Can it be true? https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/83644047

For Jerilderie's Constable Devine life after the Kelly Gang's visit was anything but divine! [Sharon Hollingsworth]

Senior-Constable George Devine, along with Constable Henry Richards, were victimized by the Kelly Gang in Jerilderie in February of 1879. Both constables were locked in their own cells  ("reversing the proper order of things by trapping the traps" as wryly pointed out by Thomas McIntyre) as the Kellys took up residence in the police station using their uniforms to pass themselves off as new recruits passing through on the hunt for the Kelly Gang. (An ingenious disguise!) All the while they were getting ready to rob the local bank.

Ned had let out Constable Richards for a while to walk around the town with some of them as they did a reconnaissance. He did not let out Devine, though. In "The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang" J.J. Kenneally said of Devine: "He was a high spirited man, and was generally regarded as a man who would rather fight than run. It was because the Kellys recognised his courage that they did not take him out of the cell to patrol the town. On the other hand, Constable Richards was much more docile, and would 'go quietly' rather than take risks."
As an aside, I have read that Richards, who was engaged to a certain young lady at time of the raid, had to endure the indignity of her breaking off the engagement in the aftermath of events since he had "not done his duty"! My friend Greg Young (after I let him have a peek at the rough draft of this article) quipped:  "Seems that Richards was given the white feather by his intended!"

In [I Am] Ned Kelly, John Molony says of Devine: "He never recovered from the dreadful indignity of incarceration in his own lock-up, and the taunts of cowardice and ineptitude unjustly levelled by many at him, as well as at the townsmen of Jerilderie, rankled deeply."

George Devine around the time of the Kelly's visit. (courtesy of Trove)

Devine eventually left Jerilderie and after being posted to other towns in NSW, wound up in Western Australia where he worked as a race course detective. But it seems that he could not run from notoriety as it was permanently attached to him thanks to Ned Kelly.  Before that fateful life-changing day in February 1879 Devine had been attributed as boasting that "if he met the Kellys, they would remember it." Seems after that day he was to be the one to never forget, nor would anyone let him if he tried (much like McIntyre and the wombat hole!).



To illustrate, there was this interesting bit from the Sunday Times (Perth) from August 24, 1919:


There is one man who cordially hates the name of Ned Kelly, his associates, and all that was and is his. The said-hater is a racecourse official who, in the dear, dead days of long ago had an experience with Ned and his gang that rankles in his memory even after over 39 years. The usual ordinary public, especially the portion not old enough to know first hand, all fondly imagine that the said official was one of the constables who, when the police spy and traitor Aaron Sherritt was shot, promptly got under the bed. Not so, the now racecourse man having been on duty in another State. At the Perth courses, where the average gun hoodlum is barred from admittance to the course by the said official, they never fail to ask how he liked Ned Kelly, what it was Ned Kelly did to him, and how he liked being locked up in his own cell, and sundry other sarcasms too poignant for print. It's wonderful what a marvellously rotten memory pests have for half-truths and untruths, and what a blank is their mind when the real episodes are called in to question.

Even as early as 1909 there were reports of the public hounding him as being one of the four from Sherritt's hut! In the Sunday Times of October 24, 1920 there was a blurb saying "For the five-hundredth time, no, it was NOT Sergeant Devine (now of Perth) who was in Aaron Sherritt's hut..." But it seems that a few realised he was not one of those (thus the "how did he like being locked in his own cell" bits), but that still served them well as far as baiting him!

It was said that "At one time Devine used to resent and threaten libel and slander actions, contempt of constabulary, etc., but later on he accepted the gradually dwindling jibes philosophically and with an outwardly calm demeanor."


It seems that in his off time Devine attended Kelly Gang themed plays and films when they were in town. In the Sunday Times, August 24, 1924 it stated that:



"The most disgusted man after seeing the Kelly Gang picture was ex-Sergeant Devine, who was in charge of Jerilderie when the gang swooped down there. Devine's lively recollections of Ned and his three mates are not in accord with the film at present here, and he deeply resents the imputation therein."




That is odd that he attended such events as Kenneally said that

"The feelings of Senior-Constable Devine were so grievously wounded by the indignity of being locked up in his own prison cell at Jerilderie that he disliked to hear any reference to the Kelly Gang and their visit to Jerilderie."

I suppose it was inevitable that Devine heard the hue and cry of the hunters (or hound-ers?) up until his death in May of 1926 at age 79.

The Sunday Times of May 23, 1926 said:


 Only two days before he was laid to rest in Karrakatta, he was walking Barrack-street and accosted a member of the staff of this journal cheerily enough. Though looking very shaky, he greeted the scribe, whom he well knew, and made a direct unsought reference to a long-made promise to give the said scribe a few stories of his early life, including unpublished details of the Jerilderie stick-up. Within half a dozen hours of that meeting in Barrack-street he had passed away and within 48 hours had been borne to his long resting place.

It is a shame that he did not live to tell those tales!

Images of Devine's grave. (courtesy of Michael Ball)

You will remember that Ned Kelly had made a souvenir of Constable Devine's revolver at Jerilderie and that he had it with him at the siege of Glenrowan. It is the gun that Jesse Dowsett later souvenired. Ned also took Devine's and Richards's police horses which were later found abandoned. There was something else he took, too. It was reported that Jim Kelly in later years found a police trooper's uniform at the old homestead (which was assumed to have come from Jerilderie) and when he asked a friend what he should do with it he was advised to burn it!

Ned took all those souvenirs, but did you know that Devine wound up with a souvenir of Ned's, too?

According to the Sunday Times Aug 24, 1924:

Until a few years ago the said Devine had a rare souvenir of Ned Kelly, he having been down at Spencer-street when the famous armor arrived. Said souvenir was a handkerchief that on being rubbed on the still-stained mouldboard plate irons, showed spots and streaks of rust and blood, the latter being that of the famous outlaw himself. In a fire that occurred a few years ago in Perth he lost not only that relic, but a clothes line with which the almost equally notorious Captain Moonlight was tied when captured at Wantabadgery.



The part that Devine's wife Mary played in the proceedings at Jerilderie will be covered in a future blog posting.

Article Alert: Visit of Irish Australian Exhibition to Ireland Ditched

From Google Alerts:

Well, it seems that the "Not Just Ned" Irish exhibition currently on in Canberra is NOT going to Dublin afterall!

From the article:

National Museum of Australia director Andrew Sayers, in a letter to the Irish Echo, said that while it had been hoped that a version of the exhibition be brought to Ireland, “that is sadly no longer possible”.

The Irish Echo understands that Ireland’s current economic woes is one of several reasons blamed for the decision.

http://www.irishecho.com.au/2011/03/23/visit-of-irish-australian-exhibition-to-ireland-ditched/8250


As I had noted in an earlier post, Ned's armour was not going to be included anyway! Not sure if they had planned to send any of the other suits of armour or not. Now the point is moot!

If anything changes between now and then I will keep you posted! 

Ned Kelly's links with classic British comedy [Brian Stevenson]

The short and turbulent life of Ned Kelly has been portrayed many times on the stage, sometimes memorably, sometimes less so. A case in point was a play Ned Kelly, almost certainly written by James Clancy, although the performance review that I found referred to him as John Clancy.

The production of Mr Clancy's play, at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London, would have been a memorable occasion, perhaps not for the play itself, but for playgoers of a certain vintage with an interest in British TV comedy.

As the first person, apparently, to comment online on the relationship between Inspector Henry Pewtress, who searched for the three bodies at Stringybark Creek and his grandson, Ballard Berkeley, the dotty and lovable Major Gowen on Fawlty Towers, my credentials on connections between the Kelly Gang and classic British television comedy are assured. (But I want to add to them in this blog post anyway.)

Let's start with Ned. He was played by, of all people, Harry H Corbett, who many of us will remember as the unassertive son, Harold Steptoe, always engaged in a battle of wits with his hideous, manipulating and terrible old Dad, played by Wilfred Brambell in the series about the junk shop owners, Steptoe and Son. (It was reconfigured in the States as Sanford and Son.) Harry added the H to his name to avoid confusion with the children's television puppeteer, Harry Corbett, who was the manipulator of the politically incorrectly named little bear, Sooty for many years. (It didn't work because it was only when I wanted to do research for this post that I realised that they were two different people.)

Anyway, Harry H did a commendable job! The review in the London Times for 24 May 1960 singled out young Harold - sorry, Ned - as 'a dashingly heoric figure' whose performance 'nicely suggests the slow conversion of an egotism which ends by convincing the outlaw that he is destined to take over the government of Australia in the name of the common people.' Sounds as if the reviewer picked up some of the subtleties, and Ned's monomaniacal and delusional ambitions certainly translate better to the stage when they are not restricted to northeastern Victoria!

Harry H was joined on the stage by Brian Murphy, who seems to have dual roles, the confirmed one as Ben Gould, and another one not listed in the cast. The reviewer again: 'Mr Brian Murphy has several delightful turns on his own, sometimes as an inept police sergeant and sometimes as a philosophic linesman in the telegraph service.' Sergeant Kennedy is not listed in the dramatis personae, so perhaps Brian Murphy played him as well. I didn't know that Ben worked as a linesman either. We can only wonder at why the playwright saw fit to include Ben, a comparatively peripheral character in our saga, and left out meaty roles like Francis Hare, Frederick Standish, Alexander Fitzpatrick, Sergeant Steele, Thomas Curnow and many others. (Constable Gomer Evans - whoever that was - got a part in the play, though.) Brian Murphy, of course, played the henpecked and easygoing George Roper in the sitcom 'George and Mildred.' No sign of Yootha Joyce (ie, Mildred) on the cast list though.

The third actor from classic British comedy had two roles listed. Both characters that he played were Irish, but otherwise the pair had little in common: Pat Quinn and Constable MacIntyre. We are not told which Pat Quinn was portrayed, and it is interesting that he was in the play when all members of the prolific and vital family of Lloyd were left out. It is hard to think of Grant playing either when we remember the toothsome and lecherous Jack Harper from 'On the Buses', who never seemed to stop chasing clippies (female bus conductors) except for when he was laughing with his mate Stan Butler (played by Reg Varney, incidentally the first person ever to use an automated teller machine) and at the pair's nemesis, Inspector Blake (played by Stephen Lewis.)

Despite its stellar cast - OK, a cast that would be considered stellar in the future - the play does not seem to have impressed the reviewer. The improvisation led to 'a great deal of mumbling [which had] the effect of stretching out a not very eventful action to a length of exactly three hours.' The music did not help either: 'There are many Irish jigs and there are also songs to help the story along, but ... all the songs seem to be variants on 'The Wild Colonial Boy', and none of them is particularly well sung.' One is left with the impression that the evening was not a memorable one, but a time traveller might enjoy seeing Harry H Corbett, Brian Murphy and Bob Grant all on the same stage and playing characters that were nothing like the personages for which they would be so fondly remembered.

Brian Murphy is still around, having survived his television wife, Yootha Joyce, for over thirty years. But Harry H Corbett left us early, dying in 1982 at only 57. Bob Grant's ending was perhaps even more sad. Typecast as the happy-go-lucky Jack Harper, his lack of employment opportunities thenceforth sent him into bouts of depression, and he tried to commit suicide on at least one occasion. In 2003 he was found dead in his home after taking his own life. He was 71.

As for the play, I don't think that you can read it anywhere. I looked for a copy everywhere I could think of, but no luck, and my dear friend, co-blogger and indefatigable researcher Sharon could do no better than find a copy of the program for sale at an extortionate price. The legend and the name lives on, though some of its manifestations were ephemeral. As someone famous might have said, such is life.

The Glenrowan Inn's Mrs. Ann Jones and her Policeman Son [Sharon Hollingsworth]

Recently I was doing some Kelly Gang research along a certain avenue at the Trove historical newspapers site and turned a "cyber corner" (or turned a "virtual page"?) and ran right into Mrs. Ann Jones's policeman son!

If you will remember, for the "Kelly Gang From Within" series in the Sydney Sun (published in 1911) B.W. Cookson conducted interviews in 1910 and one of those whom he interviewed was Mrs. Ann Jones of the Glenrowan Inn. In the interview she stated that:

"I have four children living. My son Owen is in West Australia; Terry is a policeman in the West; Headington is a farmer over there; and Tom is a schoolmaster somewhere in New South Wales."

In Justin Corfield's "Ned Kelly Encyclopaedia" the Ann Jones entry states that she had 14 children and listed eight of them saying at the end of the list that there were "six others."

Amongst those names in Corfield I noted that "Terry" was not listed (nor any variation thereof).  Maybe he was one of the other six? Or maybe, just maybe, Cookson misunderstood her and instead of Terry, thought she said another name? Or maybe someone down the line transcribed his notes wrong or perhaps it was typeset wrong?  Remember that Mrs. Jones was very sick at the time of Cookson's interview and prone to coughing fits (and she died not long afterward). Maybe she was hard to understand at times?

Bear with me as I lay out evidence that perhaps Mrs. Jones's policeman son, instead of being Terry Jones, was maybe one of those actually listed in Corfield.

Ann had a son named Jeremiah who was born in 1874 (according to Corfield). He was one of four of her young sons who were locked in the Inn by Ned Kelly while the rails were being lifted prior to the siege of Glenrowan.

From the Sunday Times (Perth)  May 9, 1937

..it is of interest to know that one of the first to see Ned in his armor was the late Police Sergeant Jerry Jones of Merredin. When a toddler J.J.'s mother was the proprietress of the famous Glenrowan Arms, the hotel around which the battle between the police and the bushrangers raged and from which the widowed Mrs. Jones and her small family and a lot of non-combatants emerged under a flag of truce. But. in spite of that truce, the five-year-old son of Mrs. Jones, a brother to Jerry, was shot dead by a stray bullet fired from no one could exactly tell where. Jerry himself well recalled that before the police train came along to be stopped by by school-master Curnow waving a lamp with a red handkerchief around it, the gang - Dan Kelly, Steve Hart, and Joe Byrne - drank deep and heartily at Mrs. Jones' bar, played hop, step and a jump; rope quoits; and at the order of Ned, who came there several times and went away to put on his armor, paid up for the drinks to a penny.


[Ok, there are a few errors in the account, such as the hotel is called the Glenrowan Inn, not the Glenrowan Arms..Mrs. Jones was not a widow at the time...and the young man killed was 13, not 5...also, didn't Curnow himself say that he used a candle not a lamp? But we digress...]


Looking in other news articles I found information about Constable Jerry Jones of Perth doing his duty around the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century. I am not exactly sure what year he began his career (he was listed on the page of officers at the WA Police Historical Society website who began their career pre-1898. 1898 being the year that numbers were begun to be assigned to police), but it seems that he did indeed die with his boots on!

July 6, 1932

Sgt. Jones, officer-in-charge at the Merredin police station died suddenly from heart failure on the morning of June 29. He was 58 years of age and had been in charge of the station three years.

Dying in 1932 and being 58 years old fits in with the birth date of 1874 for Jeremiah Jones.

Another paper dated July 24, 1932 had this:

The death of Police-Sergeant "Jerry" Jones, of Merredin, removes another link from the story of the capture of the Kelly Gang In June, 1880. The mother of the late JJ was Mrs. Jones, the landlady of the hotel at Glenrowan, where the final battle took place, and where Ned Kelly, the only one of the gang alive, was taken prisoner. The late Sergeant Jones was probably among the remaining few to have seen Ned Kelly.


The website for the WA Police Historical Society has a grave listing for policeman Jeremiah John Jones in Merredin Cemetery.

I looked under the officers lists there and there was a T. E. Jones who joined long before Jeremiah, but how likely would it be that he was named Terry and was the son of Ann Jones in light of the fact that Jeremiah/Jerry was known to others as being the one in question and had been quoted recalling the siege? It is unlikely that so many would have been mislead and also the real one or his relations would have written to the papers protesting!

 I looked all over the net and in all the Kelly books I have and modern day articles up to this point that I have access to and no one else has publicly come up with the "Jerry is Terry" theory. Am I correct in this?
 If so, it would seem that just one letter of the alphabet sometimes makes all the difference in the world to researchers!

As an aside, I feel utterly compelled to mention about Ned Kelly's half-brother Jack King (who went by the Kelly name) who was a policeman out in WA from March 1906 until April 1908. If I did not bring it up I am sure someone else would surely have reminded me of the omission!

We can only wonder if Jack and Jerry ever crossed paths!

St. Patrick's Day is on the way! [Sharon Hollingsworth]

Raise your glass! Three cheers for the Irish!

This week is the opening of the "Not Just Ned: Irish in Australia" exhibition at the National Museum in Canberra. One of my friends hopes to go see it before it closes in July and has promised to do a guest blog about it if he does. I am looking forward to that!


Also, I found the following Ned Kelly/St. Patrick's Day tie-in article at the Trove/NLA historical newspaper site:


The Mercury

March 8, 1879


The latest freak of Mr. Edward Kelly (observes the Riverine Herald), is a very rich one, and fully maintains his character of being possessed of the very largest amount of impudence. In a mining centre, within the boundaries of the electorate of Rodney, a grand fete is to be held on St. Patrick's Day next. In this town resides one who is said to be acquainted with the Kelly and Quinn families, and last week he received a letter from Ned Kelly, enclosing a £5 note towards the funds for the demonstration on St. Patrick's Day, the recipient averring that Kelly naively states that the bank note was a portion of the plunder annexed at Jerilderie. The receiver of the money says it is not impossible that the Kellys will form a portion of the concourse at the fete.

Kelly, by Eric Lambert - a troubled man writes about a troubled man [Brian Stevenson]

Brian McDonald's judgment was succinct on the novel, Kelly, by Eric Lambert: 'Not for research.' Published nearly fifty years ago, the work has unarguably been overshadowed by the novels of Peter Carey and Robert Drewe, but it is a powerful enough work on its own, and an entertaining read.



There are plenty of historical errors for the purists to stress over, but the work does not purport to be anything but a novel so Lambert does not have a case to answer. It matters little that Stringybark Creek is fought on 3 July, Ned rescues a grown man and not a boy from drowning, there seems to be a long period of time between the death of Aaron Sherritt and Glenrowan, and that Helen [sic] Jones, daughter of Anne Jones, dies in the siege. The gathering of traps, including Fitzpatrick, from Kelly's past to confront him at Glenrowan, is an effective touch, and it is to Fitzpatrick that the final insult, kicking the captured Kelly when he is down, is left. Fitzpatrick is described as 'merely unlovely' and, we are told, watching him was 'like seeing a skin lifted to reveal malignancy.'



The use made of some of the real characters in the drama is intriguing. Curnow is not the quiet and outwardly compliant schoolteacher, but an argumentative man who is caught trying to sneak away from the siege, but despite a blow on the head from Steve, tries and succeeds the second time. In a bizarre touch, his son has died in a train accident. Mary Miller, who as far as we know did not have a large part in the real life drama, is Ned's lover, friend and confidant. Squatter Angus McBean, who in real life was relieved of his watch by Harry Power, is a diarist and tells of nocturnal visits from the fugitive Kelly, where among other things, Kelly astonishes him with his take on the role of the Upper House or Legislative Council in the colonial Parliament: 'your [Legislative] council is Queen Victoria's cork.' Surprisingly, the fictionalised Ned informs McBean that he is 'quite a good speller' !



The Gang and their associates pretty well conform to their stereotypes. Dan is the kid brother. Joe is a sensitive soul, bursting into tears for the sake of the women and children when the inn is besieged, and reminding Ned after one of his (Ned's) tirades, 'in a voice as soft as a girl's' that he is not Jesus Christ. Aaron is as oily as ever, happy to take trap money but wincing from a feeling of self-disgust after shaking Nicolson's hand. Steve's characterisation is surprisingly well delineated. At one stage he accuses Ned of seeing him as 'the iffy one', the one that Ned does not quite trust. Ned answers, diplomatically, that he never knows what Steve is going to do next. When Steve accuses Ned of being obsessed with his mother, Ned decks him and then apologises. He denies, to a young chambermaid, ever firing a shot at Stringybark Creek.



But towering over them all, of course, is the tortured Kelly, the 'half wild ass of a man', to borrow Manning Clark's phrase. Kelly's face is 'set in time, never to grow any older.' Teri Merlyn, in her doctoral thesis on Eric Lambert, sees the novel as 'a sympathetic but acute observation of his decline into monomania and madness through isolation and a burning resentment against a regime he knows will never give him and his kind any justice.' In Lambert's novel, she continues, Kelly is an 'explosion of fury' against the historical injustice of English oppression of the Irish.



As for Lambert - he was a troubled and tortured man himself. The author of seventeen novels under his own name as well as novelisations of films was born in England in 1918 but came to Australia with his parents as a toddler. His war service left him in poor health: at one stage he was injured by a grenade, and he claimed to have an ulcer 'the size of a poached egg.' Lambert was talented and idealistic but hypertensive. His state of mind was, in the words of the Australian dictionary of biography 'unpredictable and disputative.' In 1947 the troubled Lambert joined the Communist Party and became mates with the celebrated Communist author, Frank Hardy, who was his best man at his first wedding. Their friendship was, in Teri Merlyn's words in her 1998 article on Lambert in Overland (a journal he helped to found in 1954) 'a tumult of idealistic political high jinks and high drama, fuelled by vast quantities of alcohol and prolific writing.'



In 1956 Lambert went to Hungary as an observer and broke with the Communists in the wake of their excesses after the Russian invasion of that nation. He wrote articles for the right wing press attacking Communism, and his friend Hardy saw him as a traitor to the cause, telling Lambert in an open letter 'you have more ex-mates than any other Australian.' Eric Lambert died of acute hypertensive heart failure in 1966. He was only 48.

The Shenandoah Affair [Sharon Hollingsworth]

The Civil War ship, the C.S.S. Shenandoah, was a Confederate raider that docked in Melbourne in 1865 causing sensation amongst the populace and almost sparking an international incident. As an aside, when the Shenandoah arrived in Australia they were met with the news that Washington, North Carolina had fallen to Union forces (quite an uncanny coincidence, as that was my hometown). The Shenandoah's Captain, James Waddell, was himself a North Carolina native.

The arrival of the Shenandoah in Melbourne would have been around the time that young Ned Kelly saved the drowning Richard Shelton at Avenel (but some say he saved young Shelton in 1866). We can only wonder what young Ned had heard (and thought) about all the drama surrounding the Shenandoah (never realising that himself in several years time would make the same splash in the headlines). It had to have been on everyone's lips in Victoria as literally thousands thronged the ship during the first few days she was in port.

Several key Kelly players were involved with the Shenandoah while in
Melbourne, among them Charles Nicolson, Frederick Standish, Henry Gurner, Arthur Chomley, Graham Berry and Dr. Edward Barker. Dr. Barker was referred to only as "Dr. B." by a midshipman who was amongst those from the Shenandoah invited to a formal dinner at the Melbourne Club.  Dr. B. sat beside Midshipman Mason and talked non-stop about the art and science of hanging criminals. I surmised from just that bit that it was Dr. Barker as he had done the same thing at the post-execution (of Ned Kelly) lunch gathering at which he expounded at length on the subject in 1880. Then I did some follow up and read the actual diary/journal entries of the midshipman and he then made other references that confirmed to me it was indeed Barker. His reputation proceeds him, does it not?


I urge all to search out more about the Shenandoah and her sojourn in Australia, it is quite fascinating reading. There are many non-fiction books about the whole incident and I know of at least one fictional one, an historical romance written by Paul Williams called "The Shenandoah Affair" published in 1992. (Williams also wrote the non-fiction "Matthew Brady and Ned Kelly : Kindred Spirits, Kindred Lives.") Brian Stevenson sent me a copy of "The Shenandoah Affair" a few years back and I have read it at least three times, it is that good! Of course, many of the events are merely fabrications, but the historical aspects were handled very well and you feel like you were actually there as Williams is such a good writer. You get a real feel of how things were for the crew and the public alike during those exciting times.

In the acknowledgements for the book it says:
This book is a novel, but all quotations from, or references to affidavits, newspaper stories, parliamentary debates and official communications are factual.

Standish is not mentioned by name in it, but "Detective Superintendent Nicolson," Henry Gurner, Graham Berry and "Mr. Chomley" are in the book. Gurner is a most amusing character, always being a slave to his appetite! Capt. Waddell was a slave to quite another appetite! My favourite line from the book: "But each turn of the propeller took him swiftly away from the woman who had evoked in him such bittersweet emotions: frustration, joy, lust and anger, but above all, the savage love he had never experienced before." Good stuff!! Of course, there is enough of the nautical and historical stuff to offset the romance so men can enjoy the book too!

I have been looking around the net and I don't see if for sale new at this time but there are some for sale on the secondary market that run the gamut from $8 to $80! (I am hanging on to my copy!) Reminds me of the prequel to "Somewhere in Time" called "Memoirs of Elise" that was going for $65 and up secondhand when I found a mint copy for 99 cents at the Salvation Army Thrift Store! You can well imagine my delight that day!

Maybe some libraries down under might have copies of "The Shenandoah Affair"?

Or perhaps it will be reprinted in light of the fact that it is being made into a movie:

http://www.inov8entertainment.com/102/Current_Projects_innovate_entertainment/Current-Projects-innovate-entertainment.html

If the film is half as good as the book it should be a corker!

UPDATE: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE SHENANDOAH AFFAIR IS NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM

 GO HERE FOR DETAILS:

  http://elevenmilecreek.blogspot.com/2012/05/20th-anniversary-edition-of-shenandoah.html

Something Borrowed [Sharon Hollingsworth]

When Sgt. Kennedy and Constables Lonigan, Scanlon and McIntyre set out
on the hunt for the Kellys which turned in to what we know as the
Stringybark Creek incident they had many borrowed things with them.

They had borrowed a tent.

In a letter dated December 6, 1878 written to Sub-Inspector Pewtress,
Archibald McKenzie wrote:


To Mr. Pewtress, sub inspector police, Mansfield

Sir,

On the 24th September 1878 the late Sgt Kennedy borrowed a tent from
me which was destroyed by the Kelly gang. I therefore desire to be
paid the sum of three (3) pounds, three (3) shillings, the value of
the said tent or equivalent, a duck tent 8 ft x 10 ft..

Archibald McKenzie, Mansfield


They had borrowed horses.

 In the Royal Commission Sadleir said:

 "As I have already informed Sergeant Kennedy by telegraph, he will be
required here to consult with the other sub-officers engaged in this
matter; let him come by to-morrow’s coach, bringing a plain saddle
with him, as I wish him to take back a horse specially fitted for this
expedition. Constable Scanlon and Constable McIntyre will also form
two of the party from the Mansfield end.” ...That horse that Sergeant
Kennedy was to ride was a very remarkable white horse, and I did not
think he was suitable for work of this sort, and I gave him another
quiet handy horse - that was the horse that McIntyre afterwards
escaped on..."

Constable McIntyre stated that:

Kennedy was riding a young, flash mare changed for a steadier horse
P18, which Constable Scanlon led up from Benalla.


They had borrowed weapons.

 In the Royal Commission Constable John Kelly said:

In March 1877 I was transferred to Wood's Point to take charge of the
Wood's Point station, and on the 23rd October 1878 I left Wood's
Point, in charge of a gold escort, for Benalla. On the 24th I arrived
at Mansfield, and the late Sergeant Kennedy met me at the coach. He
told me in confidence he was going out after the Kellys. He asked me
if I would let him have a rifle that Constable Horwood was going to
take with him on the escort. I told him that as there was only the one
rifle between us, it would be a very dangerous thing, but, after
consideration, I said, “Get a second revolver and give it to Horwood,”
and I said, “You can have the rifle.”

This weapon was a .500 calibre seven-shot Spencer carbine.


Another weapon, a double-barrelled breach-loading shot gun, was
borrowed from the Rev. Mr. Samuel Sandiford, an Anglican clergyman of
Mansfield. This weapon was the one McIntyre used to shoot at parrots,
which alerted the Kellys to the police party's near-by presence. It
was taken by the Kellys after bailing up the camp and later used
during the Euroa holdup and even later Joe Byrne used it to
assassinate Aaron Sherritt. Ironically, according to Ian Jones, it
"was almost certainly the one which fired the fatal shot at Kennedy."

There is one other thing that Kennedy, Scanlon and Lonigan probably
wished they could have borrowed.....time...and a whole lot more of it.

Article Alert: Ned Kelly's Armour Travels to the National Museum

From google alerts..

http://news.blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/2011/02/25/ned-kellys-armour-travels-to-the-national-museum/

The State Library of Victoria's news blog has a posting called "Ned Kelly's Armour Travels to the National Museum" (for the Not Just Ned exhibition opening March 17). There is a really cool photo of the helmet being put in a traveling case and the text says that the armour will be back on display at the Library in mid-August. I had read elsewhere - http://www.irlfunds.org/australia/news_3_11.asp  - that the exhibition would be going to the National Museum in Dublin, Ireland for 6 months once it was done in Canberra (it ends in Canberra at the end of July). [NOTE: The exhibition's visit to Dublin has now been cancelled due to budget constraints per an article linked in the comments dated March 23, 2011...but who knows what may occur between now and then? will keep you posted!] The first article confirms my thoughts that not all of the armour would be going overseas with the exhibition. I remember when they had the Ned at the Dead exhibition in Dublin a while back and they only had acquired Dan's helmet for that after much negotiating. No way would the 4 original suits be allowed to leave Australian shores all at the same time! It remains to be seen what will be going. Stay tuned!

A bushranger survey - guess who wins! [Brian Stevenson]

Ned Kelly is one of the best known Australians ever to breathe, no arguments about that. Indeed, he has been famously declared to be the only Australian that will be remembered in a thousand years time, and over thirteen decades after his execution, there is no sign of interest in Ned, or public awareness of him abating in a great hurry. No arguments about that, either, but two academics, Bruce Tranter and Jed Donoghue, both from the University of Tasmania, decided to quantify the interest and awareness of Ned, and took a survey that they published in a 2008 issue of the Journal of Sociology.

Tranter and Donoghue consider bushrangers an important feature of the Australian mythscape where 'the myths of the nation are forged, transmitted, reconstructed and negotiated constantly.' Elements of our 'mythscape' such as convicts, pioneers and bushrangers are fundamental to notions of our national identity. So it was worthwhile for Tranter and Donoghue to find out how aware contemporary Australians were of bushrangers.

The academics surveyed 1914 people and asked them to name four bushrangers. Over 80 percent named Ned as one of the four, with nearly 70 percent naming him first. Ben Hall was named in 28.9 percent of responses, but only 6.6 percent of respondents named him first. Those with colourful names did well and made up much of the balance - Captain Thunderbolt, 'Mad' Dan Morgan, Captain Starlight and Captain Moonlite, while trailing way behind Ned and Ben, all polled respectably, with all except for the benighted Moonlite being named by over 10 percent. The only other bushranger named by over 10 percent was Dan Kelly - it is fair to say that without his surname, he would have been of the same cellar dwelling status as Steve Hart
(2.8 percent), and Joe Byrne (2.5 percent.) The only other bushranger mentioned was Frank Gardiner, named by over 5 percent. And I wonder if Captain Starlight achieved his high ranking because memories of the real one were added to memories of the fictional bushranger in Rolf Boldrewood's novel, Robbery under arms.

Some of what you could call 'middle ranking' bushrangers missed out altogether. By these, I mean the ones well known to aficionados, but not household names. My old and much missed friend Edgar Penzig would have been upset at the apparent non-interest contemporary Australia takes in Johnny Gilbert, who he used to like describing as one of the most prolific (in terms of offences) criminals ever. Not too many seem to remember the urbane and homicidal Matthew Brady, the grotesquely transplanted Black Caesar, the hideous Michael Howe, the charmed and charming Martin Cash, the survivor Johnny Vane, the old windbag Jack Bradshaw, the 'brown paper bag' bushranger Harry Power, Queensland's own Alpin McPherson ... it is a long list. Even Jack Donahoe missed out, despite his name sometimes being used in 'The Wild Colonial Boy.' No room for the untypical bushrangers, either - the 15 year old Gus Wernickie, the Chinese Sam Poo or the female consort of Thunderbolt, Yellow Mary.

Some of the respondents rather missed the point and named politicians as 'bushrangers.' Every Prime Minister between Gough Whitlam and John Howard was so tagged, as well as Menzies and Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. One person, in what I can only presume was either extreme ignorance or light frivolity, named the famine-busting rock singer who hated Mondays, Bob Geldof. Mythical, but very Australian characters like the Jolly Swagman and the Man From Snowy River were also cited, as were Abel Tasman (dead for a century and a half before the time of Black Caesar) and contemporary or near-contemporary businesspeople like Christopher Skase and Alan Bond (the respondents may have had a point there.)

Tranter and Donoghue worked out other sorts of interesting stuff. There was hardly any difference in awareness of bushrangers between men and women, and they felt that those respondents who read the newspapers were more aware of the bushrangers, because of the way Ned and Co bob up in them from time to time. Slightly less than a quarter could name four bushrangers, and 17.5 percent could not name even one. Only eleven people took what would have been the easy way out for the edified and educated readers of this blog by naming the four members of the Kelly Gang. (It is a little surprising that Steve seems to be slightly better known than Joe, although not one respondent mentioned Steve first.) Middle aged and older Australians did a bit better, and (no surprises here) those born in Australia did a lot better than those born overseas.

The authors of the report saw the personal qualities of Ned, Ben and Thunderbolt as playing a part in the robustness of their memory. Like Kelly (when he wanted to be, that is), Ben and Thunderbolt were courteous. All three were daring, and led the police a merry dance for a prolonged period of time - seven years in Thunderbolt's case. While Kelly was violent, and a killer, Hall and Thunderbolt were not, although Edgar Penzig would have argued most passionately that the former certainly tried hard enough. All three enjoyed significant local support.

But there were 'three interlinked elements' in Kelly's case. Firstly, the press has played an important role in ensuring that he was remembered as a folk hero. Over time, press attitudes have changed from predominantly critical to largely sympathetic. Secondly, the armour, which for five generations or so has provided him with a readily identifiable and iconic image. Heavens, it was even used in the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics! Thirdly, the well known series of Sidney Nolan paintings have ensured that connoisseurs of the higher elements of Australian culture have not forgotten Ned. Tranter and Donoghue conclude: 'In life he was an outlaw who captured the national imagination, but in death he has transcended his bushranger status to become a national symbol. Although supporters and critics are divided as to his standing as hero or villain, Kelly symbolises a romantic and rebellious aspect of national identity in contemporary Australia.'

Etched in Memories But Not Carved in Stone [Sharon Hollingsworth]

It seems that the Kelly Gang really did light up a few lives.

It is interesting to read some of the obituaries and death notices from some of the old newspapers at the Trove website (formerly the National Library of Australia's historical papers site). Back in the old days there was a great deal of name-dropping going on where the deceased were tied in with people of note and some of those had the most tenuous of connections at times. The Kelly gang seemed to be popular figures to reference. Understandably, those in the police force or others who had prominent roles in the Kelly saga had mentions of Ned Kelly or the Kelly gang in their death write ups, but what really surprised me were the number of just average folks whose write ups contained references to their run ins and associations with the gang! 

Let's take a look at few, starting with the police.

Of course, the earliest police deaths that would mention the Kelly gang would have been those of Michael Kennedy, Michael Scanlon and Thomas Lonigan. Oddly, years later when certain members of their families passed away the gang got a mention. When Mrs. Lonigan died the gang was referenced as well as when a daughter of Michael Kennedy's died in 1953.


There was this somewhat incongruous/misleading newspaper headline from 1924 for Alexander Fitzpatrick:


SHOT BY NED KELLY. TROOPER FITZPATRICK DEAD.


In June of 1899 there was this sensational headline for Ernest Flood:

DEATH OF SUB-INSPECTOR FLOOD. ONE OF NED KELLY'S "MARKED MEN."

The one for Sgt. Steele in 1914 read:

SGT. STEELE "NED KELLY'S CAPTOR"

Then, oddly, there was this one in 1938 for Mrs. Steele and a son, who each died within a short while of each other:

CAPTURER OF NED KELLY WIDOW AND SON DEAD WANGARATTA


Charles Nicolson had the coolest headline of the police:

DEATH OF C.H. NICOLSON, A NOTED BUSHRANGER-HUNTER.

That makes him sound like an international man of action! You will recall he was in on the capture of Harry Power as well as being in charge of the Kelly hunt for a time.

I guess if you can't have your own glory you can bask (albeit posthumously) in the reflected glory of others..Michael Lawler died in 1895 and his obit had this version of six degrees of separation:

"Five years of active life were spent in Victoria, and he was associated in the Force with Messrs. Nicolson, Hare, and A. Grubb...the two former having subsequently taken part in the capture of the famous Kelly gang."

Then we have John Henry Stow, who was police sergeant at Violet Town during the hunt for the Kelly gang. "Mr. Stow was the officer who brought Ned Kelly to Melbourne after his arrest at Glenrowan."

Yeah, him and quite a few others!!!


James O'Meagher died in 1933, he was "a member of the Victorian police force...his lively and intimate reminiscences of the Kelly gang were always entertaining."

J.M. Hewitt was said to have been "the last survivor of the police present at the capture of the Kelly gang." While William Canny was said to have been "the last survivor of a band of six mounted police which was among the force that went to Glenrowan to capture the Kelly gang."


Not to be outdone by the Victorian police, Mr. William John Anderson died in October of 1934 and his claim to fame was that he "was one of the last survivors of the NSW police force who took part in the pursuit of the Kelly gang."



Other policemen with mention in their obits of the Kellys and their part in the pursuit are as follows with the most prominent being: John Sadleir, Francis Hare, Brook Smith, Frederick Standish, Sgt. Devine, James Dwyer, Henry Pewtress, James Whelan, Hugh Bracken (a very special case as he committed suicide),Tom King, and the two black trackers Hero and Jack Noble.

Other lesser known policemen whose obits have mention of the Kellys include: Oscar E. Hedberg, Sr. Constable Boulton, Patrick O'Loughlin, Robert Henry, William Whitaker, William John Anderson, Constable Healy, Michael Hanlon, Samuel Mooney, and James Allwood.

There was another lesser known policeman with an unusual headline:

FATAL MISTAKE

MAN DRINKS IODINE

Seems that in 1932, Frederick Manning, who had been a police trooper and who had claimed to be in on the capture of Ned Kelly, had mistaken a bottle of iodine for medicine with tragic results.

But not as tragic as the terrible irony of

 KELLY GANG RECALLED. EX-POLICE OFFICER BURNT TO DEATH.

This was in 1929 and was for Constable Robert McHugh (which the article mistakenly refers to as Thomas McHugh) who was at Glenrowan for the siege.

Let's look at some of the other non-police folks whose obits and death write ups reference the Kelly gang.

There are those whom I know to have been prominent in the saga such as Judge Redmond Barry, Robert Ramsay, Jesse Dowsett, Anton Wicks, Bishop Matthew Gibney, and William Elliott.

Others who had been at Glenrowan (besides Gibney) were prisoners Michael Reardon and John Charles Lowe (the article said he was "believed to be the last survivor of the people imprisoned in the Glenrowan Hotel by the Kelly gang." He died in 1950. I suppose that the babe in arms, Bridget Reardon who died many years later did not come into account as she was not aware like the others were?).

Thomas Curnow's obit mentioned the gang, as well as the one for his sister, the one who had been wearing the red llama scarf/shawl that Curnow used as a warning signal to help stop the train.
In all the books she is listed as Catherine Curnow, but in a news article detailing her death she was listed as Kathleen Trudgian (as she had married John Trudgian in 1882 according to an online record). Surely "Kathleen" is a typo as the same online record had her as Catherine. Anyway, it said that "Mrs. Trudgian often spoke of the courtesy extended by Ned Kelly when she and her brother were held prisoner, and said it seemed inconceivable that he was such a notorious outlaw."

The Jones children, Johnny and Jane also had the gang mentioned in connection with their deaths, as did their mother, Ann Jones who died in 1910. In one article she was listed as "Mary Ann Smith." We know she married Henry Smith after the death of her husband Owen Jones, but I have never seen her first name as Mary before. Maybe another newspaper mistake? Has anyone seen her death certificate? Or am I just talking to myself as usual?

Of course, the death of Kelly family members made mention of Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang.

Kelly author J.J. Kenneally also had mention of them in his write up, as did reporter Joe Melvin who travelled in the special train to Glenrowan with the police.

Oddly, there is someone I have never heard of named Thomas Power who is billed as a sports writer who was said to have been the first newspaper representative to reach Glenrowan. Perhaps that meant other than the pressmen who got there with the police?


There were a few folks who had been in the banks when the Kellys raided whose write ups told of the fact and there was one who had in his obit that he was a bank manager at Benalla at the time of the outbreak (lucky for him the gang never robbed one there!). Another bank manager had been issued a gun to use if the Kelly gang tried to rob his bank, instead he accidentally shot himself with it and he developed tetanus and died! Folks who were bailed up at Jerilderie or who had helped run the telegraph service there had the Kellys mentioned in their write ups.


Ok, now the fun begins, we get to those with really tenuous ties...

There was one fellow whose obit simply stated "He had met Ned Kelly." There was one who was said to have been "nursed through an illness by Mrs. Kelly" and there was one who ran a butter company who bought milk and cream from the Kellys. A few even had in their obits that they had been schoolmates with either Kate Kelly or Steve Hart and one old fellow's write up said that he had played cards with Ned Kelly. Another old timer, not yet dead at the time, had claimed that Ned Kelly taught him how to smoke. Another fellow's obit claims he rode with the Kellys and some others had met them when the gang members worked for their families in their pre-outlaw days.

One old dear, who was the late wife of a policeman had a write up that claims "she arrived in the Riverina 54 years ago, travelling in one of the first trains to pass through Glenrowan after the capture of the Kelly gang"! Talk about tenuous! That is downright gossamer!

This has to be another of my favourite headlines (from 1945):

NED KELLY'S DANCE PARTNER DIES AT 92

She was one of many if all the oral histories are true!

There was one for a lady who had drank tea with Ned (ditto the above statement) and one who recalled seeing Kate Kelly ride a horse with the shoes on backwards to throw the police off the trail.

Here is another dubious headline:

NED KELLY'S ARMOR

DEATH OF ITS MAKER

It details about Joseph Grigg who was an unwilling participant in the making!

We have several folks whose obits say they came from Kelly country, and there was one who was a head porter at Wangaratta "at the time the Kelly gang was active." Another fellow who died in 1933 had a mention about the time "he was accosted late one night by Steve Hart, a member of the Kelly gang, who made no attempt to molest him when he explained that he was a stranger in the district." (Hmm...since when did that ever stop Steve, who seemed to have really poor impulse control, from taking what he wanted?)

There was another guy who claimed that he fought Ned for 13 rounds and lost, but then challenged Ned to a wrestling match and won and he also saw the last stand of the gang at Glenrowan.

There were at least a couple dozen more obits that I had read which referenced the Kellys and I am sure there were more that I did not find. And what might be in papers not archived at Trove?

And I almost forgot...there were at least two wedding anniversary articles that mentioned ties with the Kellys!


Close brushes with the Kellys during life were etched in many memories even if they were not carved in stone upon death. As far as I know I don't think that anyone's (original) tombstone actually remarked on their link with the Kellys, the one exception being the grave markers for Kennedy, Lonigan and Scanlon. Neither Ned Kelly nor the Kelly Gang are mentioned by name, but reference is made to the three policemen being "murdered by armed criminals in the Wombat Ranges near Mansfield" on the stones. There are a few in modern times, however, that have had markers put up by historical societies on previously unmarked graves, stating that they died at the Siege of Glenrowan (Johnny Jones and Martin Cherry) or that he (Red Kelly) was the father of Ned and Dan.

Michael Ball told me about a memorial plaque put up by the grandchildren of Thomas McIntyre on his grave in Ballarat Cemetery in 1988 (McIntyre died in 1918). It states that McIntyre was
 
SOLE SURVIVOR OF STRINGY BARK CREEK MASSACRE.

photos courtesy of Michael Ball

Also it looks as if someone later might have attached a very small name plate at the bottom of the memorial tribute. The name plate merely says NED KELLY. It does not look like part of the original design (though I could be wrong, and if so, I hope someone will gently correct me.). It is quite a mystery. A friend of mine said that it seems that Ned is haunting Mac in death as he did in life!

Happy Valentine's Day! [Sharon Hollingsworth]

In my previous blog posting I alluded to a romantic interlude in Glenrowan at the time the Kelly Gang were about in "A Strange Woman From Benalla." In this posting I don't reference the Kellys any further but I do commemorate one of the best holidays of the year, at least for those of us who are incurable romantics! Oh, yes, February 14th is nearly upon us and it is a time for all the good things in life....chocolate...flowers...frilly (or silly) greeting cards with declarations of love and affection...dinner out...and it is a holiday that does not require one having to deal with in-laws! It is full of win!


The photo below of two of my (sadly, late) cats, Bluster and Solomon Grundy (the one-eyed wonder cat!), aptly illustrates a very famous and beautiful quote about love written by Antoine de Saint Exupery that bears sharing today:

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. 

 And here is one from Dr. Seuss that is good to ponder on:

 You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.


And there is this one from Lord Byron:

Love will find its way through paths where wolves would fear to prey.



      HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!          

A Strange Woman from Benalla [Sharon Hollingsworth]

With St. Valentine's Day coming up soon, it is time to be thinking about romantic interludes! Read on to find out about one that occurred at Glenrowan when the Kellys were about.

During the siege of Glenrowan there were around 60 or so prisoners being held at Ann Jones's Inn. We know the names of many of them, but there is one that was alluded to but we never were told her name, she was simply referred to as "a strange woman from Benalla."

In James Reardon's testimony for the Royal Commission he said:

"...Ryan and his wife, and three or four children, and three of mine, and a strange woman from Benalla, they rushed out, and the firing was on them as hard as it could be blazed, from the drain.."

How she came to be bailed up and held in the Inn can be found in a letter written many years later by John Charles Lowe describing his experiences during the siege.

Below is a portion of the letter courtesy of Dave White.

John Lowe writes:

 I was not twenty years of age at the time, and lived with my Pa at Benalla had a horse and dray of my own and was engaged to go to Glenrowan to cart metal for the main street in Benalla. We pitched camp about two chains from Mrs Jones' hotel, and about three chains from the railway station - almost in a direct line. We were there about a month when on a Saturday night we were having a bit of jollification, and we were late before we went to bed. It was about 12 o'clock. (The occasion was one of our mates had a female visitor from Benalla with him in his tent, and we were doing all we could to annoy him, and having some fun.)

My tent was on the railway fence, the others at the back of it. Between one and two o'clock, I was awakened by a man at my tent door who ordered me to get up. I told him to go to "....", as I thought it was one of my men keeping up the joke. Then a voice from the back of the tent said: "Put a bullet through him, Straughan, if he resists." He then said: "We are Police. You had better get up," which I did.

When I got outside I recognized both of them, as I knew them. Before they went out, Kelly asked me if I knew them. I said I did and had often seen them in Benalla. He then told me they had shot Sherritt near Beechworth and that there would be a train load of police along at any moment and he wanted men to help him pull up the line so as to wreck the train.

He cautioned me very severely and assured me he would do me no harm as long as I obeyed him. He then asked how many men were in the other tents. I told him. He said: "Tell them to get out," which I did. He was with me at each tent door and had a look in at the last tent. They refused to move.

There was some argument and Piazza [this would be Adolphus Piazzi] the boss, was one of them. He lifted his gun, which he kept beside his bed and sat up, threatening to shoot. Kelly ripped the tent door open and said:

    "You ......! You lift a gun to me," and fired his rifle at Piazza. As he fired, Piazza knocked the gun with his arm and the charge went down beside his leg and through his bunk into the ground. And the visitor from Benalla gave a terrible scream as she was in the bunk with another Italian.

    Kelly then turned on me for telling him in the first place there was two in the tent and not letting him know there was a female there, and he was very annoyed, but I excused myself by saying she was not a regular. All out, he asked all hands did they know him when the female said: "I know you, Ned Kelly," and put her arms around his neck and attempted to kiss him, to which he objected. He then repeated what he told me re what he wanted and the police and the train and further cautioned us and that he would not harm us.

He thought we were line repairers and that we knew all about the job. We told him we were not and had no tools that would do the job. We then went over to the lineman's tool shed and directed him where the repairers lived about a quarter mile up....

To read more... the full letter can be found at
http://www.glenrowan1880.com/lowe.htm


Later, all of them were to wind up at the Glenrowan Inn where the strange woman from Benalla was able to escape early on (as related by James Reardon), but Lowe and his mates and many of the male prisoners were there until a truce was called Monday morning allowing the remaining prisoners to come out.

Oddly, this woman from Benalla got a special mention on national television in the documentary on the archaeological dig of the Glenrowan Inn entitled "Ned Kelly Uncovered" hosted by Tony Robinson. One of the onscreen experts was talking about Ned Kelly bailing up the workmen in the tents and said that when they came to the foreman's tent, he (Piazzi) had a woman in bed with him! Reading John Lowe's eyewitness account above tells us that is not entirely correct...at the time, the woman was in the bunk with the other Italian man in the tent and it was him that she had come to visit. (Just think, if it was Joe Byrne she was trying to come on to with the arms around the neck and the attempt to plant a kiss on, he would have probably been a tad more open and accepting than Ned was to the overture!)

These are the tents between the Glenrowan Inn and the railway station in which John Lowe and the other navvies were residing when the Kelly Gang (and the strange woman from Benalla)  came to visit.

As an aside, I am wondering who was the "other Italian" besides Piazzi in the tent?  There was testimony in the Royal Commission where Sadleir was asked if he had ever heard of a "Frenchman named Amidie" who had offered to storm the Inn at the siege along with others. Sadleir had not heard of the man, but Whelan had but had not heard about his offer to storm the house. I am wondering, if instead of being French, maybe the man was Italian? And maybe his name was spelled Amadei (Italian for "son of Amadeo") instead of Amidie (which is a French name)? Wouldn't they be pronounced about the same? It is just conjecture, but could he have been the man in the tent with the strange woman from Benalla? Something to think about!

Article Alert: The Big End of Town (The Big Ned Kelly Statue)

From Google Alerts:

The Weekly Times Now has done an article called "Big End of Town" in which Chris and Rod Gerrett of Kate's Cottage gift shop in Glenrowan go into detail about the Big Ned statue which they had commissioned and donated to the town.

From the article:


At any one time Chris can look out to the street to see hordes of people taking Ned happy snaps - one time a fleet of army tanks posed with him, while another time a group with cut-out buckets on their heads were taking shots.

"Some people might think it's kitsch, but it really has been the best promotion for us as a town. It's the most photographed thing in the whole area," Chris says.

To read more and see photographs go to

http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2011/02/09/291311_country-living.html


For even more on Big Ned with an elaborate history and extensive photos of Big Ned being built and being loaded on the truck for transport see the Big Ned page at Dave White's site:

http://www.glenrowan1880.com/big_ned.htm

Time Team's Tony Robinson in front of Big Ned. Courtesy of Dave White.

(Part Two) Constable Tom King: Hero of the Maryborough Great Flood of 1893 [Greg Young]

Note from Sharon Hollingsworth: Today, guest blogger Greg Young (great-great grandson of Tom King) continues the saga I began in (Part One) Tom King: Hero of the Maryborough Great Flood of 1893 located at  http://elevenmilecreek.blogspot.com/2011/01/part-one-constable-tom-king-hero-of.html  In that I told about the illuminated address Constable King had been awarded by grateful citizens. (Am just thinking that back in those days they did not have helicopters and motor boats like the present day rescuers are lucky to have, King and others only had strong arms to row with!) In this installment Greg tells about his quest to track down the present day location of the illuminated address and provides a few more details of how highly regarded his ancestor really was and gives a brief biographical sketch as well as a few other interesting bits and pieces that tie in with the Ned Kelly story!

Greg Young writes:

As a child I had discovered the fascinating story of Ned Kelly and was reading everything I could find on the subject when my visiting maternal grandfather told me that his grandfather, Thomas King, had been part of the police hunt for the Kelly gang. This only added to my interest and it reminded me that history is closer to us then we sometimes think.

As amazing as my family connection was, I was reticent to find out about Thomas Irvine Orton King. Would he be a typical man of his times? A brutal overseer of the trackers? Perhaps he was a member of the ferocious and feared Native Police; a force of white officers who led teams of trackers to “disperse in the usual manner” any aboriginals deemed a “problem.” Dispersing meant killing all members of camps - men, women and children of all ages, no matter what the alleged crime. (Thankfully, he was not!)

My search for the truth about Ned Kelly has continued for over 42 years and in the last decade I have found many anecdotes and stories of Tommy King that show him to be a most amazing man, respected and admired by all who knew him.

When it was announced that King (who had "fists like sledgehammers") would be travelling to Victoria with trackers from Fraser Island, the Courier Mail wrote: "The Kellys have got after them the best man, on horseback or as a tracker that Queensland can produce" and, it continued, "a more honest or brave heart than his has never trod the path of duty." The QLD Police refer to Tom King as their most famous policeman, his name associated with the capture of many Queensland criminals.

The search for Tom King led me to investigate the Queensland town of Maryborough where Tom spent many of his years as a policeman and where he is buried.                                                                                                                   
Maryborough still retains many of its colonial buildings, one of which houses the Maryborough Historical Museum. It is there that the illuminated address presented to him is now kept. Ironically it is flood damaged from the 1956 floods that inundated the city. King's police handcuffs were also displayed there but were stolen from the Museum in 2009.

My visit to the Museum and my request to see the illuminated address was met with blank looks until one of the volunteers remembered where it was kept locked in a drawer, awaiting restoration. When I told the volunteer staff about the "Hero of the Maryborough Floods" and my relationship to him, stories and links to other descendants in the area were forthcoming.

Greg Young holding the flood-damaged illuminated address that had been presented to his great-great grandfather Tom King.

King came from a family of Policemen, his father Walter was a Sergeant in Ipswich, QLD who resigned from the force in the early 1860s, leaving his family in Australia to fight in the American Civil War. Walter returned to Australia in 1865 and re-enlisted in the QLD Police, remaining in Ipswich until his death in 1896. Tom's brothers Nathanial, William and Walter also joined the Queensland Police Force. Tom King's association with the local Butchulla people and his knowledge of their tracking practices were invaluable and there was a mutual respect between this Irish-born policeman and the local aborigines. King was made a Bunda ("a father, brother, son combination and a respected person, allowed to sit in the Dora or Bora" - "A Dulungbara Perspective" by John Dalungdalee Jones).

His attitude to justice is clearly stated when he was chastised by journalists in 1894 for allowing an Aboriginal prisoner that he had apprehended to escape, though he later recaptured the suspect.
“Why did you not shoot him in the back?” he was asked. He replied “A man is innocent until proven guilty, and I do not shoot innocent men."

The citizens of Maryborough did not forget Tom King's bravery and years of service, and when he died in 1917 he was honoured with a state funeral. Horse drawn funeral carriages paraded through the streets of Maryborough and the grateful residents lined the streets to pay their respects. Strangely, this honor did not extend to a headstone and Thomas King is buried in an unmarked grave in the Maryborough cemetery.

Tom King in 1912. Taken when he was a member of the Pialba Shire Council. 

The trackers he took with him to join O'Connor in Brisbane for the trip to Victoria  included Gary Owen who was called Barney, Jack Morris (Jacky) who had befriended a Catholic priest in Victoria and adopted his name to become Jack Noble, and Willy Woondunna or Wondunna. In 1980 a suburb between Torquay and Urangan (not far from Hervey Bay) was named Wondunna in honour of the tracker and a plaque placed upon his grave in a small cemetery in Hervey bay.
A little known Kelly connection is worth noting: Willy's son Frederick Woondunna created a scandal when he fell in love with (and married) the sister of the local Missionary - Ethel Gribble - daughter of J. B. Gribble - the man to whom Ned Kelly returned his watch at Jerilderie (after it was souvenired by Steve Hart).