DETAILS OF DEATH

On 31 October 1844, District Constable Thomas Smith received a report that several men were illegally cutting timber. Some newspapers report the illegal activity was occurring on Crown Land on Bruny Island, which is situated across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Southport, other accounts report the activities occurring at Recherche Bay to the South of Southport.

Either way, District Constable Smith set out from Southport in the Government boat with several police constables and a ‘probationer’ convict and whilst in transit were caught in a violent storm which overturned the boat tossing all occupants into the sea. Thomas Smith, William HODGKINSON, John Williams and the convict ‘probationer’, Joseph Ward were drowned in the accident.

DETAILS OF DEATH

On 31 October 1844, District Constable Thomas Smith received a report that several men were illegally cutting timber. Some newspapers report the illegal activity was occurring on Crown Land on Bruny Island, which is situated across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Southport, other accounts report the activities occurring at Recherche Bay to the South of Southport.

Either way, District Constable Smith set out from Southport in the Government boat with several police constables and a ‘probationer’ convict and whilst in transit were caught in a violent storm which overturned the boat tossing all occupants into the sea. Thomas Smith, William Hodgkinson, John WILLIAMS and the convict ‘probationer’, Joseph Ward were drowned in the accident.

DETAILS OF DEATH

On 20 October 1991 Constable McNamara was taking part in a training run at the Goulburn Police Academy when he collapsed suffering from heat stroke. At the time he was undertaking the Patrol Support Element Course. He was initially conveyed to the Goulburn Base Hospital however due to his deteriorating condition he was transferred to Sydney’s Prince of Wales Hospital the following day. He died eleven days later of multiple organ failure caused by muscle meltdown. The Constable was born in 1967 and joined the New South Wales Police Service on 28 March 1986. At the time of his death he was attached to the North West Region Major Crime Squad.

DETAILS OF DEATH

Murdered by his Aboriginal trackers at the Lennard Police Camp on Lillamaloora Station, West Kimberley on the 31st of October 1894.

DETAILS OF DEATH

District Constable Thomas Smith is listed in the Police Establishment Records for the District of Southport on the 1st March 1842 as a serving police officer. The rank ‘District Constable’ indicates he was probably a free settler not a convict. It was not uncommon to employ convicts who had received a ticket of leave in the police force; the rank District Constable was normally reserved for free settlers. According to several Tasmanian newspapers, District Constable Thomas Smith was called out to investigate a number of squatters reported to be cutting timber on Crown land without a license. To access this particular area of Crown land Constable Smith and several police colleagues had to travel by boat. A violent windstorm hit the boat and overturned it tossing all the occupants into the sea. It is clear from all newspaper reports and an entry in the Deaths in the District of Hobart for 1844 record book that Thomas Smith (entry 437) accidentally drowned on the 31st October 1844. The Colonial Times (5 Nov 1844) reported Thomas Smith serving 12 years as a police officer and “…was a most excellent officer.” The report goes on to note his “…excellent character and great length of service.” The Launceston Advertiser published a brief account of Lanceston’s Chief Constable ‘canvassing the town’ to raise money for District Constable Smith’s wife and young baby.