Eighteen years ago Class 9 /1951 from the Penrith Police College held the final get together with my father Keith Holstein as he was too sick to travel to a reunion. The group changed their plans and visited dad at home. He passed away 18 years ago today. Sadly missed.
Keith HOLSTEIN: Class 9 /1951 from the Penrith College held the final get together with my father Keith Holstein as he was too sick to travel to a reunion. The group changed their plans and visited dad at home.
( L-R at rear ) ?, ?, ?, ?, ?, Eric MAURER # 7134
Class 9 – Penrith Police College. It is possible that the Class number is wrong and further details are needed to verify the actual Class number. This photo DOES contain Keith HOLSTEIN, NSWPF # 7130, It is most probably taken around October / November 1951 at Penrith BUT the Class number is wrong. ( 2025 )
Gloucester Advocate (NSW : 1905 – 1954),
Tuesday 10 December 1940, page 2
SCHOOL CONCERT
Successful Entertainment.
The ever popular School Concert in connection with the ‘break-up’ of the Gloucester District Rural School, held in the Star Theatre on Thursday night, brought a crowded house. My attention was as much upon children in the audience as those upon the stage, for their interest in every word and movement was so in tense as to be a drama in itself — and the pride of the parents was equally manifest. All classes from the smallest to the highest contributed to the programme, and each gave a splendid account of itself. The little playettes, pantomimes, singing and intricate dances were delightful to watch. Their training was wonderful. No child forgot his or her part, and everything ran along smoothly— a tribute to the children and to the patient training given by their teachers.
Percussion Band : Conductor was Julie Williams, players from the Infants ; Mrs. Pussy, Julie Williams was Mother Cat, Graham Ross the Mouse and children from 1st and 2nd class ; Verse Speaking, ‘The Table and the Chair’ by 3rd’ Class pupils; ‘The Cat and the Parrott,’ the Parrott was Lynn Gray, the Cat was Dick Channell, the Old Woman was Joan Fordham, the King was Gordon West, Queen, Belle Relf, the Soldiers were Edward Patmore, Geoff. Holden and the Elephants were arranged and acted by Roger Dombkins and Keith Holstein. The Donkey was Patsy Morris and the ‘Old Man’ was Les. Wilmen, the Land Crabs were Namoi Franks and Lola Jacobs and the narrator was Julie Williams.
Cantata. — Queen, Jan McLeod ; Captain Soot, Colin Gray ; Dr. Sun light, Lynn Gray ; Baron Hairbrush, Jim Walden ; Lord Bootlace, Di^k Channel ; Lady Soapsuds, Iris Hoy; Secretary, Ron Chapman ; Wag, Ross Campbell, and the Fairies and Black Brigade were from the Lower Primary Classes.
Choir, from Senior Pupils, ‘Here’s a Health unto His Majesty,’ ‘Hearts of Oak.’
Folk Dances : Super Primary Girls.
The Russian Play entitled, ‘Bal bushka,’ was produced by 4th class pupils ; Babushka, Jean Nichols ; Motheiy June Nichols.
‘The School at ‘Possum Flat,’ . produced by 5th class pupils : Tea cher, Pell Brorson ; Mayor, Noel Jory ; Mrs. Onions, Vida Ferguson; Mrs. Pumpkinskull, Nancy Wharton.
Verse Speaking : ‘Ballad of Dick Turpin,’ was rendered by 6th Class pupils and the ‘Extracts from the Revenge,’ and’ ‘For England,’ were rendered by 7th Class pupils.
The Choir, consisting of Senior pupils rendered, ‘Xmas Carols’ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’ The pupils were prepared by Mrs.) Nash, Miss Moses, Miss Henderson,) Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Ward. Mrs. Nash officiated at the piano.
Messrs. Shepherd and Shiels gave assistance as doorkeepers, and Miss Bessie Shepherd and Mrs. Eric Morris officiated1 in the ticket office.
The children’s sporting events at the Carnival were in the capable hands of Messrs. McGown, Punton, Critchley, Wilmot and Thompson. It was disappointing that more of the district teachers did not come along and assist in the big job that these teachers had to carry out.
However the children enjoyed themselves’ thoroughly and were quite satisfied with their races and games.
The outstanding events were the tug-o-war and the ball games, which caused much excitement during the running of them.
Every team had its following of barracker’s and the contests were closely fought out in every case.
To cap all the fun, there was the apple race, which was enthusiastically contested by many boys, who were rather well washed by the time the event had been decided — many were given a whole bath on reaching the tub first.
Each child received 6d for 1st and 3d for second place, and 6d for each member of the 1st teams and 3d for each member of the 2nd teams.
Following were the results: —
Races. —
Boys under 8, Don Searle 1, Eric Latimore 2 ;
Girls under 8, Fay Baker 1, June Woodger 2 ;
Boys under 9, Keith Holstein 1, Eric Latimore 2 ;
Girls under 9, Jan McLeod 1 ;
Boys under 10, ? 1, M. Ferguson 2 ;
Girls under 10, Joan Jory 1 ;
Boys under 11, B. Jory 1;
Girls under 11 ? 1, M. Hebble-White 2 ;
Boys under 12, Barry Drewe 1, Ivan Morris 2 ;
Girls under 12, Jean Lowe 1, Kath Saxby 2 ;
Boys under 13, G. Dean 1, A. Woollard 2 ;
Girls under 13, Heather West 1, V. Slade 2 ;
Boys under 14, John Testorelli 1, M. Smitn 2 ;
Boys over 14, Jim Landers 1, Gordon Cameron 2 ;
Egg and Spoon Rain, Flora Farley 1, June Williams 2 ;
Thread the Needle Race, Heather West 1, Vida Ferguson 2 ;
Sack Race Rex. Beattie and Barry Jory a tie.
Ball Games (Girls) : Tunnel Ball. M. Lovett’s team 1, H. West’s team 2 ;
Overhead Ball, H. West’s team 1, G. Hebblewhite’s team 2 ; Captain, M. Lovett’s team 1, H. Latimore’s team 2.
(Boys) : Tunnel Ball, K. Pile’s team 1, F. Eade’s team 2 ;
Overhead ball, F. Eade’s team 1, P. Brorson’s team 2 ; Captain, F. Eade’s team 1, P. Brorson’s team 2.
Tug-o-War : P. Brorson’s team 1, K. Pile’s team 2.
Note. — Some names are missing in the foot-racing results).
A youth and a man are in Albury Hospital as a result of being involved in minor accidents.
Keith Holstein, 17, single, of Bethanga, suffered injuries to both shoulders and the right elbow when he fell from a horse. His condition was stated to be satisfactory.
Joseph Matyga, 33, migrant, of 4COD, Albury, sustained multiple abrasions when he fell off a motor cycle.
At the Bathurst, Court yesterday, Mr. Dash. SM., fined Gordon Henry Barnes, of 34 Morisset Street, £5 with 9/- costs, for negligent driving after dismissing a first charge of driving under the influence.
The charges arose from a collision on the afternoon of Tuesday November 4, between defendant’s car travelling along George Street and another parked at the kerb owned by Bruce Rogerson, an announcer of 2BS, Bathurst.
Barnes, a 24-year-old vendor and truck driver, pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence.
M. C. L. Weaver, of Bathurst, appeared for Barnes and Sgt. W. Boyd was the Police Prosecutor. Dismissing the charge of driving under the influence. Mr. Dash said there was no evidence by the prosecution as to the condition of the defendant at the time if the accident.
On the evidence of the prosecution, I could not be satisfied that the defendant was under the influence of liquor at the time of the accident he added. he added .
Mr. Weaver has entered a plea of guilty to negligent driving.
Sgt. Boyd said from the witness box that about ?pm on November 4 last, he walked to George Street Bathurst with Sgt Beach and saw Constable Holstein standing near a damaged car. He then went to Howick Street where he saw a cream sedan, also damaged. He then went to 34 Morisset Street and spoke to defendants wife.
The defendant came out of the house dressed in pyjama trousers and white shirt, dressing gown socks and slippers. Sgt. Beach told defendant he was making inquiries about an accident in George Street that afternoon. Defendant said he was in bed at 2.30 that day.
When defendant came onto the verandah, the Sgt. said, he was unsteady on his feet and leaned against the wall of the house.
I said to defendant, ‘you have been drinking to-day and you are under the influence of intoxicating liquor.’ Sgt. Boyd said. Defendant said he did not drink often and had not had anything to drink that day. He admitted having had two or three beers at Kelso that morning when he was finished the ice run.
When questioned further regarding the cream sedan, belonging to his brother, defendant said he had parked it in front of Bedwells. Sgt. Beach told him it was now parked on the opposite side of the road and damaged. ‘Defendant said ‘ someone else must have driven it.’
‘Defendant was very pale and leaning against the wall. ‘I said, ‘walk across here’. ‘He commenced to walk, turned yellow in the face, and became sick.’
Defendant explained at the time that he always ‘got sick’ when he ha 2 or 3 beers.
Defendant was taken to the police station and charged.
He still claimed at the station that he had been in bed since 2.30. He declined to be examined by a doctor, the Sgt. added.
To Mr. Weaver, Sgt. Boyd said the other vehicle damaged belonged to Bruce Rogerson. It was parked outside 2BS studio in George Street.
The front bumper bar was bent forward, at right angles to the car.
Sgt. Beach, gave corroborative evidence of his enquiries in the company of Sgt. Boyd and Constable Holstein, and the arrest of Barnes.
To Mr. Weaver, Sgt. Beach said Sgt. Boyd made an examination of Rogerson’s car and spoke to Constable Holstein while he remained in a police vehicle on the opposite side of the road. Sgt. Boyd returned to the police car, told him something and they walked to Howick Street, where the sedan was parked.
Sgt. Beach said defendant’s condition at the time of the arrest was ‘consistent with him having taken liquor very recently.’
Constable Keith Holstein, also gave corroborative evidence.
Bruce Rogerson, 2BS announcer & salesman, of 264 Rankin Street’ said on Tuesday, November 4, he parked his car in George Street. He went in to the studios of 2BS and was there only a short while. He was told something and went downstairs to the car. The car had been damaged. He saw the defendant inspecting the damage. When asked whether he caused the damage, Barnes had said ‘yes’. ‘Barnes got cranky about it and denied damaging the grill of my car Rogerson said. Rogerson added that he suggested calling the police.
Defendant then left, promising to return, witness said.
To Mr. Weaver. Rogerson said he did not ring the police but someone did so at his request. He stayed with the car until the constable arrived.
The accident occurred between 4.30 and 4.45 pm.
To Mr. Dash, Rogerson said he could not say how close to the kerb he parked before the accident. He would not say the front of his vehicle protruded beyond the fronts of the other vehicles parked in George Street.
At that stage Mr. Weaver announced that he was prepared to admit defendant was the driver of the car involved in the accident. He submitted that there was no evidence to show that defendant was under the influence of liquor at the time of the accident. There was no evidence however that defendant was under the influence of liquor at 6.20, the time of the charge.
Mr. Dash subsequently dismissed the charge.
PLEADED GUILTY
On the second charge of negligent driving, Mr. Weaver entered a plea of guilty on behalf of Barnes. Evidence of damage to the vehicles was given by Constable Holstein.
To Mr. Weaver the constable said the damage to Rogersons car was consistent with being scraped by a passing car. From enquiries made he ascertained that Barnes was the driver of that other car.
Mr. Weaver submitted that defendant was careless to the extent that he did not notice Rogersons car was protruding beyond the line of the other cars.
Mr. Dash asked Mr. Weaver why defendant told lies to the police regarding the time he went to bed.
Mr. Weaver explained that defendant, a young man, had only held a license since August. He was driving his brothers car and damaged it. He was afraid police investigation would lead to the loss of his license and job, Mr. Weaver added.
A 24-year-old married man was found dead in a bedroom of his home at 9 Moresby Way, Bathurst, last night. He was Norman Murray, who was employed by Mr. A. E. Conroy as a lorry driver.
Shortly before 10 o’clock, Murray’s wife and her sister, 14-years-old Lorna George, were preparing to retire in another bedroom of the home when they heard a shot. They rushed into the second bedroom where they found Murray’s body slumped across a bed.
A .22 repeating rifle was beside him.
A neighbor, Raymond Barrymore Hutchins, notified Bathurst police.
Constables K. Holstein and K. Franklin rushed to the house, where they were later joined by Sergeant F. Murray, who took charge of inquiries.
Bathurst doctors and Bathurst Ambulance went to the house, but death had been almost instantaneous. He had been shot through the right temple. Police later found a slug in the room. A small purse containing live bullets was also found. Police said that Murray did not own the rifle; but had borrowed it to go shooting next week-end.
On October 4 a Bathurst jury had awarded £223/12/5 damages against Murray in the District Court following a claim made against him by a Perthville woman.
Murray had been the driver of a lorry involved in a collision with the woman’s car on the Perthville Road on August 20, 1952. She claimed damages as a result of the collision.
Murray is survived by his wife and two children, aged five years and nine months.
Police said last night there were no suspicious circumstances and that a post-mortem would not be conducted. The Deputy Coroner (Mr. O. G. Parnham) will view the body this morning.
A New Australian, Josef Quitter, ( 41) of Russell Street. Bathurst, was fined £5 for driving a vehicle while under the influence of liquor, at Kelso an October 5. On a second charge of indecent behaviour, Quitter was fined £3.
Sgt R. Beach said at about 2.30pm on October 5. 1954, he was on duty at Kelso with Constable Keith Holstein.
He saw defendant commence to drive a utility from in front of a store at Kelso. He drove for about 4 feet and then stopped. On three occasions he drove the vehicle forward for a distance of about 40 feet. He go out of the car, continued witness, and staggered to a private fence on and behaved indecently. Asked why he did this, defendant replied, ” I do no harm, nobody see me. ”
Defendants breath smelt of intoxicating liquor, and he stated he had had a drink at the Kelso hotel about 20 minutes before.
He said he had one drink at Bathurst earlier.
Defendant had a cigarette in his mouth and it appeared that the lighted portion was inside his mouth. He appeared to be more than moderately under the influence, and he had appeared to have consumed more liquid than what he said he had.
When defendant behaved indecently, there was a man and a woman only about 40 feet away, added witness.
In reply to Mr. Braham ( for Quitter ), Sgt. Beach said defendants Wife was standing away from the car and it appeared that they had a difference.
Mr. Braham said that on the day of the offence Quitter had had an argument with his wife and only a few minutes before his arrest, defendant’s wife had slapped his face. Defendant, at this time, was highly excited but did not intend to drive his vehicle. He knew he had had too much to drink.
Mr. Braham added that defendant, on the day of the alleged offence had been trying to make up with his wife and just before his arrest had an argument with her and as a result he was highly excited. This made him do things he would not normally do, Added Mr. Braham.
Mr. Dash, SM. said that even though he took this fact into consideration, he must convict defendant. He fined Quitter £5 with 12′- court costs.
Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001),
Friday 21 June 1968 (No.76), page 2537
Department of Mines, Sydney, 21st June, 1968.
APPOINTMENT
HIS Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, and in pursuance of the provisions of section 6, Mining Act, 1906, as amended, has approved of the appointment of Sgt 3rd Class Keith Stanley Holstein, Officer-in-Charge of Police, Nundle, as Warden’s Clerk, Mining Registrar and Officer authorized to issue Miner’s Rights and Business Licenses at that place, such appointment to take effect on and from 12th February, 1968, vice Senior Constable Victor John Feltis. (Ms 68-3984).
Service: From pre 21 December 2001 to Friday 14 August 2015
Awards: No find on It’s An Honour
Born: Saturday 12 September 1970
Died on: Friday 14 August 2015 during the morning
Cause: Cancer
Age: 44 years, 11 months, 2 days
Funeral date: Friday 21 August 2015 @ 2pm ( wear blue jeans & AC/DC t-shirt )
Funeral location: St John’s Anglican Church, 98 Kendall St, Cowra
Buried at: Cremated
Memorial 1: NSW Police force Service Memorial Wall, Sydney Police Centre, Surry Hills, A8 ( right wall )
Memorial 2: Police Memorial Wall at the new Deniliquin police station, Charlotte St ( February 2018 )
the Thin Blue Line Rose
JENNIFER is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance *NEED MORE INFO
I regret to advise the death of Serving member, Senior Constable Jennifer Louise EDGERTON, this morning – Friday 14 August 2015.
EDGERTON Jennifer “Jenny”
Passed away 14th August 2015, aged 44 years.
Late of Cowra & formerly of Moama.
Beloved partner of Klint & loving mother of Connor & Cooper.
Beloved daughter of Ross Edgerton & Lois Camps (Dec) & sister of Suzanne & Daniel (Dec).
Jenny’s family & friends are respectfully invited to attend her funeral to be held at St John’s Anglican Church, Cowra, commencing at 2.00pm on Friday 21st August 2015.
Thence for private cremation.
By request, please attend wearing blue jeans & AC/DC t-shirt, if possible.
2/1/2019, Deniliquin Times.
Eight honoured on police memorial wall’ –
Seven former local police officers and a former police chaplain were honoured during a police reunion in Deniliquin.
They were the first to be added to the police memorial wall at the new Deniliquin police station.
Enjoy car racing with dad and uncle Robert. Reggie Renault was the go.
You chose a job that I chose too.
I left Cowra when you were a child to pursue my dream.
You left many years later to pursue your dream.
Your life was cut short far too early.
I knew you as a princess a small child.
I never saw you in uniform but knowing your parents they were both immensely proud of you.
I speak not only as a former Cowra resident, and we both shared childhoods there, I also speak as a member of which you too belonged the NSW Police Force.. Rest In Peace Jennifer your duty has been done.
I hope you find peace.
I think Cowra has lost a cherished daughter.
My heart goes out to your parents and close relatives that I personally knew.
Hodder was attached to the Brigade Head Quarters and was hit about the end of June by a shell when in his dug out which blew off both his legs. His mate, Gordon Farnham, dressed his wounds and passed him on to the Dressing Station.
Informant heard that he was in Egypt and still alive.
Ref. Pte. G. A. Sergent, 1064,
10 A.I.F.
1st A. G. Hospital, Heliopolis, Cairo ( 6. 12. 15 )
Informant says he was told that Hodder had his leg blown off. He cannot say who told him nor can he fix the date. Hodder was a policeman at Broken Hill and he and several policemen came down with informant to Adelaide to enlist. Hodder was at one time in the 3rd Bgde. Transport.
Ref: Pte. A. R. Perry, 525,
10 A.I.F. C. Co. Gezira Hospital, CAIRO 5.1.16
Informant received the following information from Bgde. H.Q.:-
Whilst Hodder was doing police duty on the beach at Anzac during July, a shell exploded in the dug-out almost severing both legs and arms from body. Was sent back to Egypt and believed to have died in Alexandria.
Ref: Pte. Tanner, 25,
3rd Bgde. H. Q. Al liayat Convalescent Home, Helouan, Cairo. 3.12.15
He and Pte D. Fisher were in Police Duty at Brigade headquarters on August 6 and were each hit by same shell. Hodder had one or both legs blown off and Fisher lost one or more limbs. Witness did not see this happen but heard it from mates and regarded it as absolutely ture, but could never find out what became of either of them subsequently.
About 5ft 10 or 11, fair, clean shave, enlisted in South Australia, stout build, about 12 or 13 stone.
Pte. A. A. Smith 1040 A Coy, 10, A.I.F., Malta 6.1.16
Both legs were blown off by a shell explosion whilst in his dug-out behind the trenches to the right of Lone Pine.
He died in the dressing station on the beach. Informant received the above account of Hodder’s death from J. Thomas, Stretcher-bearer, 10 A.I.F.
Ref: Sgt. Neave, 131, Sporting Club Hospital, Heliopolis, Cairo 10.1.16
Court of Inquiry held in France 7.9.17 found this soldier K. in A. on or about 9.8.15. No hospital admission nor place of burial available.
“possible” relation in “the job”: A.R. WHITTAKER, NSWPF # 8649
New South Wales Police Force
Regd. # 18588
Joined NSW Police Force via NSW Police Cadet system on 1 February 1977
Cadet # 3334
Rank: NSW Police Cadet – commenced 1 February 1977 ( aged 16 years, 9 months, 16 days )
Probationary Constable – appointed 17 April 1979 ( 19 years, 0 months, 1 day )
Detective – appointed ? ? ? ( YES )
Constable – appointed ? ? ?
Constable 1st class – appointed 16 April 1984
Senior Constable – appointed 16 April 1988
Sergeant 3rd Class – appointed 27 September 1991
Final Rank: Detective Sergeant – Death
Stations: ?, Gosford Drug Unit ( Brisbane Waters LAC ) – Death
Service: From 1 February 1977 to 28 September 1991 = 14 years, 7 months, 27 Service
Time in Retirement: 0
Age at Retirement: n/a
Awards: No find on It’s An Honour
Born: Saturday 16 April 1960
Died on: Saturday 28 September 1991 @ Royal North Shore Hospital, NSW
Cause: Cerebral Haemorrhage
Age: 31 years, 5 months, 12 days
Funeral date: ? October 1991
Funeral location: ?
Buried at: CREMATED:
Ashes Interred in the Palmdale Lawn Cemetery & Memorial Park, Palmdale Rd, Palmdale, NSW
Rose Garden, 26A, Site 58
Memorial Plaque: Point Frederick Pioneer Park, 1 Albany St, Pt Frederick, NSW
-33.449594151.341945
Memorial Plaque location: [codepeople-post-map]
RICHARD WHITTAKER
Touch plate for Richard Charles WHITTAKER at the National Police Wall of Remembrance
DICKIS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance
Memorial plaque: This plaque was laid in memory of RICHARD CHARLES WHITTAKER, a Detective Sgt of Police attached to the Gosford Drug Unit, who died of a work related illness on the 28th of September, 1991, whilst in the service of the people of New South Wales & the Central Coast area. Richard was born in the Point Frederick area and spent many of his childhood days in this park. Dedicated by his family & many friends on the 16. 4. 1992.
Richard Charles WHITTAKER – Memorial Plaque – Pt Frederick, ( Central Coast ), NSW, as of April 2022. Credit: Kevin Banister.
Memorial Plaque – Pt Frederick, ( Central Coast ), NSW, as of April 2022. Credit: Kevin Banister.
Richard Charles WHITTAKER – Grave location. Palmdale Cemetery, Palmdale, NSW
Richard Charles WHITTAKER – Grave location. Palmdale Cemetery, Palmdale, NSW
Before his death Detective Sergeant Whittaker and other Police had been involved in a major drug investigation which had resulted in the arrest of eighteen offenders. Corruption allegations were made by a number of the offenders resulting in a Police Internal Security Unit investigation.
During the protracted internal investigation the Sergeant was under enormous pressure and as a result suffered a cerebral haemorrhage.
He passed away at the Royal North Shore Hospital on 28 September 1991.
He was posthumously cleared of all allegations by Judge Allen at the Sydney District Court on 30 September 1991.
The Sergeant was born in 1960 and joined the New South Wales Police Service, via the NSW Police Cadet system on 1 February 1977 and was Attested, as a Probationary Constable on 17 April 1979.
At the time of his death he was attached to the Gosford Drug Unit.
‘Our boys haven’t been forgotten’: Policemen honoured in Brisbane Water row
September 15, 2015 3:16pm
Geraldine Cardozo Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate
(L-R) Sarah Matthews, Kylie Kerr and Tracey Holt remember their police officer partners at Gosford waterfront. Brisbane Water LAC officers will be taking to the water in honour of the policemen.
When Sarah Matthews returned home after her shift at Gosford Hospital on the evening of April 13, 2002 and spotted a row of waiting police cars she thought the neighbours were having a noisy party.
“It never struck me what was coming next,” remembers the emergency nurse who was told the worst — her fiancée Senior-Constable Chris Thornton had been killed on duty hours earlier.
“It didn’t hit me. Even when I was told. I don’t think that’s something that ever leaves you.”
This week Miss Matthews, Kylie Kerr and Tracey Holt will get together to remember their partners, Sen-Constable Thornton, Sen-Constable Peter Gordon Wilson and Sergeant Richard Whittaker, who all died on duty while with the Brisbane Water Local Area Command.
(L-R) Brisbane Water Inspector Paul Nicholls, Tracey Holt, Brisbane Water Commander Daniel Sullivan, Sarah Matthews and Kylie Kerr at Gosford Waterfront ahead of the NSW Police Legacy row. Picture: Mark Scott
On Thursday officers from Brisbane Water LAC will take part in a paddle to raise money for NSW Police Legacy to support the families of fallen officers.
“You never want to be a part of Legacy but now we are part of this unique group and without Legacy we wouldn’t have each other,” Miss Matthews said.
But for two of the women, the close bond was forged by their shared loss and haunting similarities in how their partners lost their lives.
Sen-Constable Thornton, 35, died in a motor vehicle accident while on patrol in Woy Woy in 2002, while Mrs Kerr’s long-term partner Sen-Constable Wilson, 41, was killed when he was hit by a car while carrying out speed checks on the M1 at Somersby in 2006.
Both men were based at Brisbane Water LAC, both died in car accidents on a Saturday night, and both had the same patrol car number — 202.
Senior Constable Peter Gordon Wilson with fiancée Kylie Kerr.
“This special event means our boys haven’t been forgotten,” Miss Matthews said, adding that the support of Legacy has enabled her to move on. “You have to take that step forward. You can’t be angry, because that just eats away at you.”
Senior Constable Chris Thornton was killed on duty during a high-speed pursuit at Woy Woy in 2002.
“This special event means our boys haven’t been forgotten,” Miss Matthews said, adding that the support of Legacy has enabled her to move on. “You have to take that step forward. You can’t be angry, because that just eats away at you.”
“This special event means our boys haven’t been forgotten,” Miss Matthews said, adding that the support of Legacy has enabled her to move on. “You have to take that step forward. You can’t be angry, because that just eats away at you.”
Mrs Holt, whose husband Sgt Whittaker was stationed at the Gosford drug unit and was involved in drug investigations at the time of his death when he died from a brain haemorrhage in 1991, said the annual paddle is a “beautiful day”. “It is amazing the effort Daniel Sullivan and the team put in to keep the memory going of old work mates and have a good time doing it,” she said.
Sergeant Richard Whittaker who died on duty with Brisbane Water Local Area Command in 1991. Picture: Supplied
SYDNEY: The stress of unfounded corruption allegations killed a policeman who suffered a stroke at the weekend, according to the Police Association.
The association’s president, Tony Day, said yesterday that Gosford-based Detective Senior Constable Richard Whittaker, who was promoted to detective sergeant last Friday, had been implicated in a bribery conspiracy by a drug dealer.
Yesterday, the dealer, an industrial chemist, was sentenced to a minimum of 11 years jail after pleading guilty to manufacturing and supplying amphetamines with a street value of more than $4 million.
Handing down the sentence in Darlinghurst Supreme Court, Justice Allen said John Oldfield, 52, of Winston Hills in Sydney’s west, had stated he had tried to bribe a police officer through a contact known as “M” in November, 1990.
After the alleged bribe attempt had failed, Oldfield had gone to the Police Internal Security division and made a detailed statement, implicating the officer. The judge said he was satisfied the detective knew nothing about the alleged bribe.
Mr. Day said the Police Internal Security division investigation into Oldfield’s allegations had been “dubious”.
“Every crim in NSW knows that if they want their case adjourned they just have to implicate the police, and there will have to be an investigation,” he said.
“Eighty per cent of corruption and bribery charges are disproved.”
Detective Whittaker, 31, was married with two-year-old twin daughters.
Mr Day said the Oldfield affair had played a major role in causing Detective Whittaker stress, resulting in his death.
The Brisbane Water LAC has tragically lost three staff members in the execution of their duty: Sergeant Dick Whittaker and Senior Constables Gordy Wilson and Chris Thornton. The 12 September is the annual sports charity day to remember these officers.
Paddling from Ocean Beach Surf Club to Bluetongue Stadium along the Brisbane Water on the NSW Central Coast (approximately 15km).
SYDNEY: The stress of unfounded corruption allegations killed a policeman who suffered a stroke at the weekend, according to the Police Association.
The association’s president, Tony Day, said yesterday that Gosford-based Detective Senior Constable Richard Whittaker, who was promoted to detective sergeant last Friday, had been implicated in a bribery conspiracy by a drug dealer.
Yesterday, the dealer, an industrial chemist, was sentenced to a minimum of 11 years jail after pleading guilty to manufacturing and supplying amphetamines with a street value of more than $4 million.
Handing down the sentence in Darlinghurst Supreme Court, Justice Allen said John Oldfield, 52, of Winston Hills in Sydney’s west, had stated he had tried to bribe a police officer through a contact known as “M” in November, 1990.
After the alleged bribe attempt had failed, Oldfield had gone to the Police Internal Security division and made a detailed statement, implicating the officer. The judge said he was satisfied the detective knew nothing about the alleged bribe.
Mr. Day said the Police Internal Security division investigation into Oldfield’s allegations had been “dubious”.
“Every crim in NSW knows that if they want their case adjourned they just have to implicate the police, and there will have to be an investigation,” he said.
“Eighty per cent of corruption and bribery charges are disproved.”
Detective Whittaker, 31, was married with two-year-old twin daughters.
Mr Day said the Oldfield affair had played a major role in causing Detective Whittaker stress, resulting in his death.
Valour Award & bar – VA for act performed in February 1999
Born: 20 November1961, Bridgetown, W.A.
Died on: 3 August 2000
Cause: Murdered – shot
Location: Stuart Hwy & Old Bynoe Rd, Livingstone, N.T.
Age: 37
Funeral date: Saturday 7 August 1999
Funeral location: St Mary’s Cathedral, Darwin
Buried at: Cremated. Ashes scattered at Daly River Crossing, N.T.
Memorial Service: Saturday 3 August 2019 ( 20th Anniversary ) 10.30am –
Glen Huitson Memorial, cnr Stuart Hwy & Old Bynoe Rd, Livingstone, N.T.
Brevet Sergeant Glen HUITSON
GLEN IS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance[/alert_green]
Brevet Sergeant Glen Huitson memorial, 3 August 2015
GLEN HUITSON MEMORIAL
TWENTY YEAR REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
Saturday 3rd August 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Brevet Sergeant Glen Huitson who was killed in the line of duty in 1999 whilst stationed at Adelaide River.
We will honour Glen with a gathering on Saturday 3rd August 2019 from 10.30am at the Glen Huitson Memorial, located at the corner of the Stuart Highway and Old Bynoe Road, Livingstone, N.T.
All current and former members are invited to join Glen’s family in remembering a husband, father, son, and workmate who was tragically taken from his family 20 years ago.
Glen HUITSON joined the Northern Territory in January 1987. He served in both Southern and Northern districts of the Northern Territory.
During his service in the Northern Territory Police, Glen Huitson received a Commendation from the Commissioner of Police on 17 March 1994 when he attended a disturbance at a Community near Alice Springs. He disarmed a drunken person who was armed with a knife star picket and was threatening another person with a billy of boiling water.
In February of 1999 in Litchfield Park, Glen Huitson disarmed an armed man who was threatening the driver and passengers of a bus. He received a Valour Award over this incident.
On 3 August 1999 Glen Huitson was on duty at a road block on the Stuart Highway, 60 kms south of Darwin, in bushland.
There were on watch for an armed offender who had already shot and wounded two other persons several kilometres away during the previous night.
The armed offender had managed to come through bush on one side of the road block where he opened fire with a .30/30 calibre rifle. He fired the first round into the back of a civilian then a second shot at Huitson which struck him and was fatal.
For this incident he received the Australian Bravery Medal and a bar to his Valour Medal.
This park was named in memory of the late Sgt. Glen Anthony Huitson BM, VA, Service No. 1520 on 3 August 2000.
Sgt. Huitson was the officer in charge of the Adelaide River Police Station. He died on 3rd August 1999 as a result of gun shot wounds received in the execution of his duties whilst manning a roadblock on the corner of the Stuart Highway and Old Bynoe Road.
Twice Decorated as a serving Police Officer, Glen Huitson lived his personal life with the same intensity, and was an integral part of community life in Adelaide River. His untimely death has left a gap in this community which will never be filled. Glen is survived by his Widow Lisa and children Joey & Ruby.
Citizens of the Coomalie Region joined with serving Members of the Northern Territory Police Force at this site on 3rd August 2001 to dedicate this memorial stone on the occasion of the second anniversary of Sgt. Huitson’s death.
We honour the life and the achievements of a remarkable citizen.
“On 3rd August 1999, at about 10:45 am, there was a shooting incident on the Stuart Highway at the corner of Old Bynoe Road in the Darwin rural district. In the course of the incident, two persons were shot dead. One, Glen Anthony Huitson, was a Sergeant of police on duty at the time he was killed.” (Coroner’s Findings)
Glen was performing duties on a roadblock with his partner in Livingstone at the Old Bynoe Road Turn off on the Stuart Highway, 55 Kilometres south of Darwin. They were stopping traffic entering the police cordon following a shooting incident the previous evening when the offender Rodney Ansell ambushed the roadblock shooting Huitson fataly and wounding a civilian in the back with his 30/30 rifle. For this incident he received the Australia Bravery Medal and a bar to his Valour Medal posthumously.
On the night of the 2nd of August 1999 Rodney William Ansell and Cherrie Ann Hewson went to a property on Kentish Road. Ansell fired 6 shots at a caravan occupied by Stephen Robertson and Lee-Anne Musgrave who were minding the property. A neighbour, David Hobden, drove his truck over to see what was happening and Ansell fired through the windscreen blinding him. He ran to his residence and another occupant, Brian Williams, ran over to stop Ansell who was trying to steal Hobden’s truck. Ansell shot Williams in the hand. He lost an index finger and shots were fired at his house. Ansell appeared to be yelling about child abduction which was a delusion that had manifested itself during his amphetamine addiction. He fled into scrubland with a 30/30 rifle and Hobden’s shotgun.
Police responded and set up a forward command post in the area. Roadblocks were set up on the Stuart Highway and other roads. Sergeant Glen Huitson and Senior Constable James O’Brien manned the roadblock on the corner of Old Bynoe Road and the Stuart Highway armed with their Glock Pistols a shotgun and a .308 rifle. It appears that during the night Ansell had escaped the cordon but for some reason chose to sneak up on the roadblock at Old Bynoe Road. Hewson had left the area.
At about 10.45 am on the 3rd of August 1999 the roadblock at Old Bynoe Road was still in place. A local man had approached the road block to talk to the police members and was leaning on the police vehicle when suddenly he was shot in the pelvis from behind a large water pipe in nearby scrub. Huitson used the shotgun from the police car and O’Brien returned fire with his Glock pistol. Huitson was hit by a 30/30 round and fell to the ground. O’Brien reloaded the shotgun and returned fire. He called on Ansell to put his weapons down but he called back “Your all dead”.
In response to the gun battle two Territory Response Group vehicles raced to the scene. Just prior to the roadblock the first vehicle swerved and braked and was struck by the second vehicle causing it to roll over. As police exited both vehicles and began to take up positions Ansell got up on one knee to position himself to fire at the arriving police members. This left him exposed to fire from O’Brien and the shotgun fire finally stopped him. As the Coroner, Mr Wallace, said “There is little doubt his (O’Brien’s) bravery prevented further loss of life”.
It was later determined that there were seven entry wounds on his body from return fire from Huitson and O’Brien and numerous grazes. His covered position behind the water pipe and a small tree had protected Ansell from more serious injury until he was forced to change position.
Background – Glen Huitson
Glen Huitson joined the Northern Territory Police in January 1987, served in both Southern and Northern districts and was stationed at Adelaide River Police Station.
He received a Commendation from the Commissioner of Police on 17 March 1944 when he attended a disturbance at a Community near Alice Springs. He disarmed a drunken person who was armed with a knife star picket and was threatening another person with a billy of boiling water.
In February of 1999 in Litchfield Park Glen Huitson disarmed an armed man who was threatening the driver and passengers of a bus. He received a Valour Award over this incident.
Glen was survived by his wife Lisa and young children Joseph (2) and Ruby (6 months).
Roadside memorial alongside Stuart Highway where Sgt Huitson was killed
Huitson was honoured with a full police funeral in Darwin. About 30 officers formed a guard of honour while six others carried Huitson’s coffin.
Huitsons widow Lisa receiving her husband’s police cap and National Medal Award from the police commissioner
Constable 1st Class Glen Huitson
HUITSON, Glen
This page only contains a eulogy. If you have material that can be added contact the webmaster.
FUNERAL SERVICE FOR SERGEANT GLEN ANTHONY HUITSON
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL, DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY SATURDAY 7 AUGUST 1999EULOGY GIVEN BY COMMISSIONER BRIAN BATESSERGEANT GLEN HUITSON WAS A DEVOTED AND LOVING HUSBAND AND FATHER OF LISA, JOSEPH AND RUBY. I CAN ONLY CONVEY THE HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES AND SYMPATHY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE FORCE AND INDEED THE COMMUNITY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY TO GLEN’S WIFE, CHILDREN AND BOTH THEIR FAMILIES. WE WILL DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO HELP THEM, NOT ONLY THROUGH THIS TIME BUT IN THE TIME TO COME.IN HIS LETTER OF APPLICATION TO JOIN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE FORCE, SERGEANT GLEN HUITSON SAID, AND I QUOTE:“I WAS BORN ON 20 NOVEMBER 1961 IN BRIDGETOWN, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, THE OLDEST SON IN A FAMILY OF THREE. MY PARENTS OWNED AND OPERATED A SMALL TIN MINE ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF GREENBUSHES WHERE I LIVED FOR 12 YEARS. GREEN BUSHES WAS A GREAT ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH TO GROW UP AS A CHILD, BEING A SMALL TOWN SURROUNDED BY BUSH. WE SPENT MANY HOURS EXPLORING AND DISCOVERING NATURE.LOOKING BACK ON MY CHILDHOOD I AM GRATEFUL TO MY PARENTS FOR THE STRICT BUT FAIR METHOD OF INSTILLING IN ME A SET OF MORAL STANDARDS AND PRINCIPLES IN KEEPING WITH COMMUNITY IDEALS. THIS GUIDANCE WAS TO BENEFIT ME LATER IN LIFE.”GLEN GOES ON TO TALK ABOUT HIS GROWING UP YEARS AND HIS EARLY EMPLOYMENT, PARTICULARLY WHEN THE FAMILY MOVED IN 1978 TO BUSSLETON WHERE HE WAS INVOLVED IN THE LOCAL FOOTBALL CLUB AS A PLAYER AND AN ADMINISTRATOR, AS A COACH AND UMPIRE AND FOR THREE YEARS AS A FIREMAN IN THE VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE AND WITH THE LOCAL ROSTRUM CLUB. TOWARDS THE END OF THIS LETTER OF APPLICATION GLEN SAYS, AND I AGAIN QUOTE:
“APPROXIMATELY FIVE YEARS AGO I DECIDED THAT IF AT THE AGE OF 25 I WAS STILL DISAPPOINTED WITH THE WAY MY CAREER WAS HEADING, THIS WOULD BE THE TIME TO MAKE A START IN A POSITION IN LIFE THAT I WOULD ENJOY. THE MOST HONEST WAY I FOUND TO FIND A CAREER I WANTED WAS TO SIT DOWN WITH A PEN AND PAPER AND WRITE DOWN JOBS IN WHICH I WOULD WORK FOR NO FINANCIAL REWARD. MY LIST CONTAINED THE FOLLOWING: FISHERIES INSPECTOR, CUSTOMS OFFICER, AMBULANCE OFFICER, WELFARE WORKER AND A POLICE OFFICER.
SINCE WRITING DOWN THAT LIST I HAVE WORKED TOWARDS EQUIPPING MYSELF FOR ONE OF THOSE POSITIONS. THIS HAS INCLUDED THE FOLLOWING: BEING A FIREMAN WITH OUR LOCAL VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE, ACHIEVING A FIRST AID CERTIFICATE WITH A ST JOHN AMBULANCE BRIGADE, INVOLVING MYSELF HEAVILY IN COMMUNITY AFFAIRS, MAINLY THROUGH SPORT, AND INVOLVING MYSELF IN PUBLIC SPEAKING. AFTER READING ABOUT THE POSITION OF POLICE OFFICER FOR THE NORTHERN TERRITORY I DECIDED THAT THIS WOULD INDEED OFFER ME THE CAREER I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR. AS A POLICE OFFICER IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY I WOULD BE ABLE TO MAKE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION IN MAKING THE NORTHERN TERRITORY A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE IN, THEREBY ACHIEVING MY GOAL OF JOB SATISFACTION.”
ALL OF US WITHIN THE POLICE FORCE AND INDEED THE DEPARTMENT OF POLICE, FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES, ARE EXTREMELY SHOCKED BY THE DEATH OF SERGEANT GLEN HUITSON. HIS LOSS IS A TRAGEDY FOR THE POLICE SERVICE AND THERE ARE SIMPLY NO WORDS TO DESCRIBE THAT SENSE OF LOSS, THE WASTE AND THE TRAGEDY THAT THE WHOLE POLICE FAMILY FEELS TODAY.
I WOULD ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRESENCE HERE TODAY OF SERVING POLICE OFFICERS FROM ALL STATES AND TERRITORIES OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND.
IT IS TRITE TO SAY THAT ALL POLICE FAMILIES KNOW THE DANGERS OF POLICE WORK, BUT NOTHING CAN EVER PREPARE US FOR SOMETHING LIKE GLEN’S DEATH.
NO POLICE FORCE COULD BE MORE PROUD THAN TO HAVE IN ITS RANKS AN OFFICER OF THE CALIBRE OF GLEN HUITSON. HE TOUCHED AND AFFECTED SO MANY PEOPLE’S LIVES, NOT ONLY WITHIN THE POLICE FORCE BUT WITHIN THE COMMUNITY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY THAT HE SWORE TO SERVE AND PROTECT.
AND HE DID MORE THAN THAT – BECAUSE ON NO LESS THAN THREE OCCASIONS, THE THIRD TRAGICALLY RESULTING IN HIS DEATH, HE WAS CONFRONTED WITH LIFE-THREATENING SITUATIONS.
GLEN RECEIVED MY COMMENDATION FOR AN INCIDENT ON 17 MARCH 1994 WHEN HE ATTENDED A DISTURBANCE AT A COMMUNITY NEAR ALICE SPRINGS.
HE DISARMED A DRUNKEN PERSON WHO WAS ARMED WITH A KNIFE, STEEL BAR, NULLA NULLA AND A STAR PICKET. THE PERSON WAS THREATENING ANOTHER COMMUNITY MEMBER WITH A BILLY OF BOILING WATER. WITHOUT REGARD FOR HIS OWN SAFETY SERGEANT HUITSON PREVENTED THIS PERSON THROWING THE BOILING WATER BUT IN FACT WAS STRUCK AND COVERED IN BOILING WATER HIMSELF OVER HIS UPPER BACK, RIGHT UPPER ARM AND LEFT FOREARM. HIS QUICK ACTIONS ALLOWED OTHER POLICE OFFICERS TO RESTRAIN THE OFFENDER AND REMOVE HIM AS A THREAT TO THE COMMUNITY. THE BURNS GLEN RECEIVED CAUSED HIM CONSIDERABLE PAIN AND SUFFERING AND HE REQUIRED HOSPITAL TREATMENT.
AND THEN THERE WAS THE INCIDENT IN FEBRUARY THIS YEAR WHEN SERGEANT HUITSON DISARMED AN ARMED MAN WHO HAD JUMPED ON THE BULLBAR OF A TOURIST BUS IN LITCHFIELD PARK.
THE MAN WAS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DRUGS AND ARMED WITH A LOADED .22 RIFLE AND WAS THREATENING THE DRIVER AND PASSENGERS OF THE BUS ON BATCHELOR ROAD.
GLEN KNEW THAT HELP WAS ABOUT 15 MINUTES AWAY AND WAS DEEPLY CONCERNED FOR THE SAFETY OF THE DRIVER, PASSENGERS AND PASSING MOTORISTS. HE SINGLE-HANDEDLY ATTEMPTED TO DIRECT TRAFFIC, ENGAGE THE MAN IN CONVERSATION AND KEEP POLICE COMMUNICATIONS ADVISED OF THE SITUATION. HE THEN APPROACHED THE MAN TO DISTRACT HIS ATTENTION FROM THE BUS AND PASSENGERS, PLACING HIMSELF AT CONSIDERABLE RISK.
GLEN ENGAGED THE MAN IN CONVERSATION FOR ABOUT 15 MINUTES AND EVENTUALLY CONVINCED HIM TO PLACE THE FIREARM ON THE BULLBAR OF THE BUS AND WALK A SHORT DISTANCE AWAY WHERE GLEN TACKLED HIM TO THE GROUND AND WAS THEN HELPED BY OTHER POLICE WHO HAD JUST ARRIVED. THIS WAS WITHOUT DOUBT AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF PERSONAL COURAGE, AND SERGEANT HUITSON WAS IN FACT DUE TO RECEIVE A VALOUR AWARD OVER THAT INCIDENT.
IN SERGEANT GLEN HUITSON THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE HAD A TRUE BUSH COPPER AND AN IDEAL ROLE MODEL FOR OTHER POLICE.
HE WAS A TOTAL PROFESSIONAL WHO GOT ALONG WITH COLLEAGUES AND THE PUBLIC ALIKE AND WAS EXTREMELY POPULAR WITH ABORIGINAL PEOPLE HE WORKED WITH, IN THE COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE TERRITORY. WHAT A TREMENDOUS LOSS HE IS, NOT ONLY TO THIS POLICE FORCE BUT TO THE TERRITORY.
IN CLOSING THERE IS PERHAPS NO BETTER WAY TO TALK ABOUT THIS OUTSTANDING AND COMPASSIONATE POLICE OFFICER THAN BY TELLING YOU ABOUT A REPORT HE RECENTLY SUBMITTED, AND I THINK IT IS IMPORTANT I SHARE THIS WITH YOU ALL.
GLEN HAD RESEARCHED THE HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN TERRITORY POLICE SERVICE AND HE FOUND MANY EXAMPLES OF UNRECOGNISED SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY BY FORMER MEMBERS, AND PARTICULARLY POLICE TRACKERS. HE SAID IN HIS MEMO THAT THIS UNRECOGNISED WORK WAS, AT THE TIME, NO DOUBT CONSIDERED TO BE JUST PART OF THE JOB, AND UNLESS YOU HAPPENED TO DIE ON DUTY OR REACHED A HIGH RANK, VERY LITTLE WAS DONE TO PRESERVE THE MEMORY OF THOSE MANY FORMER MEMBERS.
GLEN APPRECIATED THE SERENITY AND BEAUTY OF THE ADELAIDE RIVER WAR CEMETERY WHERE HE ALSO NOTICED SEVERAL PLAQUES DEDICATED TO MILITARY MEMBERS. HE HAD SEVERAL IDEAS TO HONOUR THE MEMORY OF POLICE MEMBERS, INCLUDING PLANTING TREES WITH PLAQUES DEDICATED TO MEMBERS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A MEMORIAL AVENUE IN OUR POLICE COMPLEX, THE PETER McAULAY CENTRE. HE SUGGESTED NEW PLAQUES COULD BE DEDICATED ANNUALLY ON A SIGNIFICANT DAY, FOR EXAMPLE, POLICE REMEMBRANCE DAY. THERE TOO, HE EMPHASISED THE WHOLE COMMUNITY SHOULD BE INVITED AND INVOLVED.
IT IS MY INTENTION TO HONOUR GLEN’S SUGGESTIONS IN THAT REPORT, AND ALSO PAY TRIBUTE TO HIM, IN A WAY I FEEL SURE HE AND YOU WOULD APPROVE OF.
FINALLY, IN THE WORDS OF THE 13TH CHAPTER OF CORINTHIANS:
“THERE REMAINS THEN, FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, THESE THREE; BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.”
ABC News: Aboriginal communities to send reps to police officer’s funeral
Trudy and Rod BrayFri, 6 Aug 1999 00:26:27 -0700
Fri, 6 Aug 1999 11:41 AEST
Aboriginal communities to send reps to police officer's
funeral.
The Gurindji Aboriginal people, from two communities south-west of Darwin, are sending
representatives to the funeral of a Northern Territory police officer.
Sergeant Glen Huitson was killed by Rodney William Ansell on Tuesday.
The sergeant's partner, Constable Jamie O'Brien, returned the fire, killing Ansell.
A Gurindji representative, Roslyn Frith, says the sergeant was given the skin name, Japalyi,
because of the community's respect and love for him.
She says he will be missed greatly.
"To the community he wasn't just a policeman, he was just another person who belonged to
the community," Ms Frith said.
"He got involved - like if there were ceremonies he'd go down and make sure everything was
alright.
"With the younger generation, he took them out. Like he was with the emergency services out
here, he went out fishing and hunting with them," she said.
� 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
https://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2@paradigm4.com.au/msg01295.html
NT: Aborigines planning funeral for Ansell in Arnhem Land
AAP General News (Australia) 08-09-1999
NT: Aborigines planning funeral for Ansell in Arnhem Land
By Catharine Munro
DARWIN, Aug 9 AAP – Rod Ansell, the original Crocodile Dundee who shot dead a policeman last week, is expected be given an Aboriginal funeral in Arnhem Land.
Ansell, 44, was killed in a shootout with police after fatally wounding Sergeant Glen Huitson, 37, about 50km south of Darwin last Tuesday.
The violent deaths followed a 12-hour search for Ansell, who had shot at two houses in the area the previous night.
His motives remain a mystery and the case is being investigated by the coroner.
The events shocked Darwin, where Ansell was known as a buffalo hunter and a bushman who had been living on an Aboriginal-owned property in Arnhem Land, about 600km south-east of Darwin.
Ansell’s two sons, Shaun and Callum, are believed to have requested that an Aboriginal community at Mt Catt, near Bulman in central Arnhem Land, allow a funeral to be held on their grounds.
“The two boys said they want to have the funeral at Mt Catt,” said Lorna Martin, who works at the clinic at Bulman.
Ansell spent some time in the area in the 1980s as a buffalo catcher and continued to make frequent visits.
The service will interrupt an important ceremony being held at Mt Catt but arrangements were being made for the proceedings to be halted for one day for the funeral on Thursday, Mrs Martin said.
“Everybody said it’s okay,” she said.
Ansell’s parents, George and Eva, both in their 70s, are understood to have journeyed to the Northern Territory from their home in Murgon, 260km north-west of Brisbane, to say goodbye to their son.
Meanwhile, the widow of the slain policeman, Lisa, said she had just returned from Daly River Crossing, where she had scattered her husband’s ashes.
Mrs Huitson told reporters she had spent three happy years there with Sgt Huitson and they had taken their son, Joseph, two and Ruby, six months, back there to be baptised.
“It was just a special place for us,” Mrs Huitson said.
Sgt Huitson‘s brother Bevan, sister Julie and parents Carole and John attended a press conference to thank the police and the people of the NT for their support.
Rod Ansell – The inspiration behind Crocodile Dundee
The day the real Crocodile Dundee Rod Ansell was shot dead
ELLIE TURNER
Herald Sun
January 05, 201412:00AM
Rod Ansell in the Outback in 1987.
ROD Ansell’s amazing story of Outback survival is one many Australians know – although they’ve probably never heard of his name.
As strong as an ox and as brave as a lion, the blond haired, barefoot bushman survived for more than seven weeks on a small island at the mouth of a crocodile-infested river in the remote Northern Territory, sleeping up a tree with a brown snake at night to avoid the salties lurking below.
His story was the inspiration for the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee. But the film only tells part of the story of Ansell’s wild life.
More than a decade after his tale of survival brought fame and fortune to actor Paul Hogan, the real Crocodile Dundee was shot dead by police after a drug-crazed rampage that saw a police officer killed and three other men wounded.
***
STRONG men in uniform broke down on the side of the Stuart Highway the day Territory police officer Glen Huitson was shot dead in a gun battle with Rod Ansell.
It was like a scene from a cops and robbers movie.
But nobody won.
Sergeant Huitson was gunned down at a roadblock in bushland 60km south of Darwin by Ansell, who had been on the run from police.
Ansell was shot in the chest as Senior Constable James O’Brien returned fire.
“The only verbal communication I had with the gunman was when I was reloading the shotgun for the first time,” the surviving officer, who has never spoken openly about the ordeal, said in a statement almost 15 years ago.
“I called out to him to put his weapons down. He called back, ‘You’re all dead‘.”
Ansell was deranged and wired on speed, more than 20 years after he emerged from the wild, a handsome young hunter armed only with a knife, a gun and a story to tell, his boat having capsized on the remote Victoria River.
His crazed life came to an end on August 3, 1999, but not before he had gunned down a police officer, leaving two young children to grow up without a father.
Northern Territory police say they lost “an all-round good bloke” that day.
Sgt Huitson’s family was robbed of much more.
In 1994, Sgt Huitson had been commended for bravery after arresting a knife-wielding drunk man – who was also armed with a star picket and a billy of boiling water in a bid to harm another person – at a community near Alice Springs.
He received a Valour Award after he talked delusional man Wayne Costan – who had tried to hijack a tourist coach with a sawn-off .22 rifle – into dropping the weapon, before tackling him to the ground at Litchfield Park in February 1999.
Six months later Sgt Huitson was killed, aged 37.
His then-infant daughter, Ruby, and five-year-old son, Joseph, grew up without their dad.
His widow, Lisa, took home her husband’s posthumous Australia Bravery Medal and a broken heart.
Former NT Police assistant commissioner John Daulby was among those who raced out to the double killing.
“Everyone was stunned,” he said. “It was just a tragedy.”
Darwin police officer Glen Huitson was one of two policemen shot by gunman Rod Ansell.
“The grief at the scene is something that sticks with me – grown men in tears.”
Ansell had wounded two men on a shooting spree in Darwin and fled into the bush, raving mad, on the night of August 2, 1999.
He was convinced members of the Freemasons had kidnapped his sons – Callum, then aged 20, and Shawn, 18.
His girlfriend, Cherie Ann Hewson, had told him that as a child she had witnessed the sacrifice of young girls that her family – members of the secret medieval fraternity – “brought out of the woods”. They were bound, raped and slaughtered, she said.
The shared paranoia came to a head when Ms Hewson claimed she spotted three bow hunters, dressed in camouflage with night vision goggles, near their bush camp.
NT Coroner Dick Wallace would later say the “wretched drivel” was at the root of Ansell‘s madness, after the couple visited mates Steven Robinson and his partner, Lee-Anne Musgrave, on a property at Noonamah, about 50km south of Darwin.
Ansell fired six shots at their caravan on Kentish Rd.
Resident David Hobden jumped in his truck, armed with his double-barrel shotty, and went to investigate the shootings. He lost an eye when Ansell put a bullet through the windscreen of his truck.
He ran to alert his neighbour, Brian Williams, who “waxed wrath” at the state of his mate’s face and grabbed a baseball bat.
He charged at Ansell, who was trying to steal Mr Hobden’s truck.
“I smacked him straight down the forehead, and that’s when he blew my hand off,” Mr Williams told police.
“He was going on about stealing his children, and Freemasons, and being a baby killer … oh, just, he was mad, mate.”
Ansell fired shots at the Williams‘ house.
Then he ran away, his rifle in one hand and Mr Hobden‘s shotgun in the other.
Ms Hewson disappeared before the police shootout. Some feared she had committed suicide.
About 11pm, Territory Response Group sent two troop carriers with six cops in each to set up a command post. They manned the north roadblock.
Adelaide River police station boss Sgt Huitson and his second-in-charge, Sen-Const O’Brien, guarded the south cordon – at the corner of Old Bynoe Rd – with a pistol each, a 12-gauge shotgun and standard police issue .308 rifle.
About 10.30am the next day, a removals worker named Jonathan Anthonysz was leaning on the cop car, chatting to the officers when a bullet blew a hole “the size of a baseball” in his pelvis.
He was flung forward, screaming, on to the ground.
Mr Anthonysz’s colleague – David Hobden‘s brother, Anthony – dragged him out of view as Snr-Const. O’Brien covered them.
The shots were coming from light scrub behind a roadside water pipe.
The cunning fugitive had sneaked through the bush and was hidden by dappled tree shadows.
In his statement, Snr-Const O’Brien said: “I heard Glen shout out, ‘Get on the ground’.
I swung round to look over the boot of the car with my Glock drawn …
“I saw my shots hit the ground close to where (Ansell) was,” he said.
Sgt Huitson called TRG for help and grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun.
He fired a shot through the windows of the police car and two shots over the roof.
But a bullet from Ansell‘s .30-30 lever-action rifle ricocheted off the top of the metal door and struck him in the abdomen.
His bulletproof vest hadn’t been properly fastened. The bullet tore through a velcro strap that should have been covered by a Kevlar panel.
Sgt Huitson fell, landing on top of the shotgun.
Snr-Const O’Brien, who wasn’t wearing a vest, dodged a bullet and rolled his bleeding colleague off the shotgun, reloaded it and returned fire.
“I realised unless TRG arrived I could run out of ammunition, in which case I would have to retreat with the others,” he said.
“I loaded two more rounds, looked up and saw the gunman wriggling forward.
“I heard a sound like a match being struck just past the right side of my head.”
Then the TRG troop carriers came hurtling down the highway.
The first driver hit the brakes and swerved as he heard gun fire – the 4WD rolled when the second car crashed into it, unable to stop in time.
Ansell got up on one knee and began lining up the cops, who were crawling out of the vehicle.
Snr-Const O’Brien got a clear shot.
The autopsy showed 33 bullet wounds and grazes to Ansell‘s body.
Two were fatal. One shot had ripped through his aorta.
He fell face down in the dirt.
Sgt Huitson was declared dead after being rushed to Royal Darwin Hospital.
Snr-Const O’Brien was scrutinised and cleared of any wrongdoing after a rigorous police investigation.
His actions were praised as “simply outstanding” when Magistrate Wallace handed down his coronial findings in September 2000.
“If he felt any fear, it seems to have been submerged by his concern for his wounded colleague and others,” he said. “There can be little doubt his bravery prevented further loss of life.”
Ms Hewson handed herself in to Queensland police four days later.
Evidence that Ansell clung to the back of a road train and escaped the roadblocks fuelled a question that would never be answered – why would a skilled bushman give up his ticket to freedom and return to gun down police when he could have slipped away?
IT was no secret the 44-year-old buffalo hunter and grazier was bitter.
Writer Robert Milliken, who spent time with Ansell while working on projects in the NT, said Ansell never saw a penny for the myth surrounding his tangled life, despite being the inspiration for the main character in Crocodile Dundee, which propelled actor Paul Hogan to fame in 1986.
Ansell blamed his troubles on a Federal Government program to wipe out wild buffalo, his livelihood, to eradicate tuberculosis from the cattle industry. He had told reporters he was living on unemployment benefits and “bush tucker”.
Magistrate Wallace heard Ansell believed police and the government were against him.
He had moved to the Territory aged 15 from the small town of Murgon, 270km north of Brisbane, in country Queensland.
The ordeal that brought him fame happened when he took a fishing trip in a motorboat on the Victoria River in May 1977.
When the boat sank, he jumped in a dinghy and salvaged his two eight-week-old bull terriers, a rifle, a knife, some canned food and bedding. The tinny drifted out to sea, washing up on a small island at the mouth of the Fitzmaurice River.
He slept in the fork of a tree, out of reach of crocodiles, at night, but shared the branches with a brown tree snake.
Ansell never counted on being rescued. He roamed for seven weeks before stumbling on two Aboriginal stockmen and their boss.
But he kept the adventure under his hat – fearing his recklessness would upset his mother – until media got hold of the yarn.
Dubbed the “modern day Robinson Crusoe”, Ansell said: “I think if you come through in one piece, then nothing else really matters.
“It’s like going out to shoot a kangaroo.
“You don’t come back and say you missed by half an inch – you either got him or you didn’t.”
Mr Milliken described Ansell as “strikingly handsome with blond hair, blue eyes and bare feet” when he met him in 1988. It was the year Ansell was named Territorian of the Year for his role in putting the Top End on the map.
At the time, he lived with his wife, Joanne van Os, and their two small sons on their buffalo farm at Melaleuca, between Darwin and Kakadu.
“He was charming,” Mr Milliken said.
“He seems never to have worn shoes, even when travelling on aircraft and staying in city hotels at the height of his fame.
“The press went mad over his story and no one seemed to mind if the details grew ever more incredible.
“A hero had been born.”
He said Ansell once told British TV personality Michael Parkinson he preferred to sleep on the floor of his five-star Sydney hotel in his swag rather than in the kingsize bed.
Ansell’s Parkinson interview sparked the interest of Hogan and led to the creation of Mick “Crocodile” Dundee.
But the fame took its toll on Ansell’s personal life. His marriage disintegrated.
In 1992, he was convicted of cattle rustling and assaulting the owner of a cattle station in Arnhem Land.
Police raided Melaleuca. He eventually lost the property.
For more than a year before his death, Ansell had been living with Ms Hewson, a former tour guide, on a billabong at the Aboriginal outstation Urapunga, on the Roper River, about 480km south of Darwin.
He was initiated as a white member of local Aboriginal clan and got on well with the Ngukkur community. But the spiral into a drug-induced psychosis continued as Ansell smoked cannabis and injected amphetamineswith vengeance.
“I didn’t know Ansell really well, but I’d met him a few times,” long-time Territorian and former reporter Chips Mackinolty said.
“He was tough as nails, the sort of person that could do what he said he did, and did do it when he was working as a stockman, as a wrangler and that stuff.
“He was an extraordinary person at that level, but it ended up in tears.”
Mr Mackinolty was heading to Katherine and had been allowed through the roadblock earlier on the day the killing happened.
“It was one of those ‘goose steps on your own grave’ sort of feelings – you were very close to what ended up being a very awful thing.
“It’s always sad when the threat of poverty and frustrated ambition get mixed up and send people off the edge, big time,” Mr Mackinolty said.
“I was completely shocked, as were a lot of people who knew him in the earlier years.”
In his coronial ruling, Magistrate Wallace said the contrast between the “original Crocodile Dundee who appeared on television” and the emaciated drug addict – who weighed just 53kg when he opened fire on police – could hardly be more marked.
“His drug abuse rendered his mind so addled he believed fantasies that a child would dismiss with contempt,” he said.
“His pointless and destructive actions caused immediate agony and suffering to the men he wounded.”
The infamous rampage means Ansell is remembered in Darwin not as a knockabout bushman, but as the man who murdered a heroic cop.
Sergeant Glen Huitson
Posted on
Along the side of the Stuart Highway, heading to Batchelor and points south, there’s a turnoff at Old Bynoe Road. On this corner there’s a simple cross like far too many you see on Australian roads. This one is the same in that it marks the point where a loved one lost his or her life. The ever-present, neatly-arrayed booze bottles testify to the fact that his friends have not forgotten him.
However this site is also different. It doesn’t mark a road fatality, but rather the death of a police officer on duty, Sergeant Glen Anthony Huitson, killed protecting the community from a man who had gone on an overnight shooting spree. The further tragedy is that this death, left a young widow and two little children who will never know their father: the risks that police face daily in doing their duty.
The Policeman from the bush
By all accounts Glen Huitson was a quietly impressive young man and an excellent policeman who was soon to receive the Police Valour medal, given posthumously to his wife, Lisa. Huitson had worked out bush and was well respected by the communities he’d worked in. Stationed at Adelaide River at the time of the shooting, Huitson is also remembered by a memorial there.
Across the new railway track on the Old Bynoe Road, there’s a different kind of memorial from the simple cross with beer bottles. It’s the official memorial in Glen Huitson Park. It has an impressively large stone brought from a distance and plaques to honour the man and the police officer.
Roadside memorial stone
I recognise that another family lost a person they’d loved that day. No doubt as they pass Huitson’s memorial they think of their own loved one. However for me this is about the loss of a man doing his duty. As you go about your routines today, please remember all those police officers who daily risk their lives to protect us.
I leave you with Glen Huitson’s eulogy, testifying to his concern for others and his true community spirit. Rest in Peace, Sergeant Glen Huitson, you did your duty well.
On the Darwin Esplanade, near the Cenotaph, there’s is a memorial to all Northern Territory Police and Emergency Services workers who gave their lives in service to the community.
4 thoughts on “Sergeant Glen Huitson”
What a wonderful tribute …thank you for bringing us this introduction to a man without whom the world is a poorer place.
Thanks Chris. It happened a couple of years after we got here and was a great tragedy. I really feel for his family and the loss of a good man.
I stumbled across this post today… For some reason Glen came to my mind, and I did a search. Maybe this all came about as I saw a photo of his gorgeous sister and his 2 beautiful children.
Glen was a friend and I know his family well. He was a great man and it was an extremely sad day the day he left this life.
hi Vicki, sorry I hadn’t realised I’d omitted to reply. Thanks for sharing…it was indeed a tragic day for all concerned…we have a connection through the other officer that day though we didn’t know him at the time.
IT was 15 years on Sunday since one of NT Police’s darkest days.
On August 3, 1999 Brevet Sergeant Glen Anthony Huitson was manning a roadblock on the Stuart Highway at Livingstone when he was shot and killed by “Crocodile Dundee” Rod Ansell.
Ansell was then hit with fatal return fire by Sgt Huitson’s partner, Senior Constable Jamie O’Brien.
He was the first policeman to be murdered on duty in the Territory for 47 years, and to this date he remains the last.
Sgt Huitson’s wife Lisa said the anniversary was always emotional.
“But he’s always with us and it’s good to see his colleagues and friends return,” she said.
“It’s nice to come back.”
The couple’s children Joe and Ruby were just 2 and 10 months old when their father was killed.
Police Commissioner John McRoberts said the memorial was a sobering reminder of the dangers of policing.
“It’s really good to pay our respects to a man who died doing what he loved and wanted to do – which was serve and protect,” he said.
Sgt Huitson joined the NT Police in January 1987. He served in both Southern and Northern districts.
During his service, he received a Commendation from the Commissioner of Police in March 1994 when he attended a disturbance at a community near Alice Springs. He disarmed a drunk armed with a knife and star picket, and was threatening another person with a billy of boiling water.
Then in February of 1999 in Litchfield Park, he disarmed an armed man who was threatening the driver and passengers of a bus. He received a Valour Award over this incident.
For the incident which cost him his life, he was awarded the Australia Bravery Medal, and a bar to his Valour Medal.
Service: From: 14 February 1998 to 15 December 2001 = 3+ years Service
Attested: Friday 14 August 1998
Awards: ?
Born: 9 January 1974
Died on: 15 December 2001
Incident date: 24 November 2001
Cause: Head injuries
Age: 27
Funeral date: ?
Funeral location: ?
Buried at: Coffs Harbour Lawn Cemetery
https://www.australianpolice.com.au/gregory-michael-jackson/ Constable GREGORY MICHAEL JACKSON – NSWPF – DIED 15 DECEMBER 2001 IMAGES FROM DAVID MacPHERSON
Gregory Michael JACKSON memorial plaque on the front wall of Bourke Police Station.
Gregory Michael JACKSON memorial plaque on the front wall of Bourke Police Station. Greg’s plaque is the the left of the window on the left. The plaque on the right of the same window is for Ash BRYANT.
Gregory Michael JACKSON grave plaque in the Lawn section of Coffs Harbour cemetery.
https://www.australianpolice.com.au/gregory-michael-jackson/ Constable GREGORY MICHAEL JACKSON – NSWPF – DIED 15 DECEMBER 2001
https://www.australianpolice.com.au/gregory-michael-jackson/ Constable GREGORY MICHAEL JACKSON – NSWPF – DIED 15 DECEMBER 2001
https://www.australianpolice.com.au/gregory-michael-jackson/ Constable GREGORY MICHAEL JACKSON – NSWPF – DIED 15 DECEMBER 2001
https://www.australianpolice.com.au/gregory-michael-jackson/ Constable GREGORY MICHAEL JACKSON – NSWPF – DIED 15 DECEMBER 2001
GREG is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance * NOT JOB RELATED
Cop’s bar stool death a ‘tragedy’
The State Coroner yesterday found a Bourke policeman who was knocked off a bar stool at a police Christmas party died in a “tragic misadventure”.
An inquest at Dubbo and Sydney heard that Constable Gregory Jackson, 27, died from head injuries three weeks after falling head-first off a bar stool at the Bourke Golf Club.
Mr Jackson and his colleagues were celebrating at their Christmas party on November 24, 2001 when the incident occurred about 3.30am.
Mr Jackson was dancing on a bar stool in the middle of the dance floor but was knocked off balance by a colleague and fell to the floor. He died in Sydney’s Concord Hospital from head injuries three weeks later.
Delivering his findings, Coroner John Abernethy said the police officers still at the club were “happy, moderately-intoxicated and intent on dancing”.
The officer who knocked Mr Jackson from the stool was “affected with alcohol and in exuberant high spirits”, he said.
He said Constable Melanie Butcher made innocent contact with Constable Jackson’s legs, bumping into him either while running towards him with her arms outstretched or trying to climb onto a nearby stool.
But the contact “had the disastrous effect … of causing Constable Jackson to lose his balance and fall to the floor causing him a serious head injury”, Mr Abernethy said.
He also found Constable Jackson’s conduct – dancing on a 64cm tall bar stool – “had an inherent danger to it”.
Mr Abernethy dismissed suggestions the stool had been kicked out from under the officer and said no charges should be laid over the death.
“There is no criminality at all in the incident and I see it as simply a very tragic misadventure,” Mr Abernethy ruled.
However, he criticised police for the three-month delay in investigating Mr Jackson’s death, saying the lapse of time was “both significant and unwarranted”.
Before the first of two official police investigations began in March 2002, “the death of a fellow police officer was being treated … in a somewhat cavalier fashion”, he said.
“On one view it can be said that scant attention was paid to the duty to investigate a coronial death.”
Mr Abernethy was also critical that the first investigation – though sound – was run by a police officer who knew Constable Jackson and other officers involved in the incident.
“The decision ran the risk of a perception of a conflict of interest and lack of transparency,” he said.
He recommended that future NSW police investigations into coronial deaths of police officers be conducted only by an impartial investigator.
Greg was an avid 4 x 4 driver and is the brother of Brad Jackson.
Wayne Raymond GEORGE
23/08/2015
Wayne Raymond GEORGE
New South Wales Police Force
Joined NSW Police Force via NSW Police Cadet system on 2 February 1976
Cadet # 3222
Redfern Police Academy Class 157
Regd. # 17765
Uniform # 1822
Rank: NSW Police Cadet – commence 2 February 1976
Probationary Constable – appointed 5 December 1977
Constable – appointed 4 December 1978
Senior Sergeant – Death
Stations: ?, The Rock – O.I.C., School of Traffic and Mobile Policing ( S.T.A.M.P. ), Police Academy, Goulburn
Service: From 2 February 1976 to 8 June 1995 = 19+ years Service
Awards: National Medal – granted 16 September 1993
Born: Thursday 4 December1958
Died on: Thursday 8 June 1995
Cause: Motor Vehicle Accident – Police cycle – Rider
Location: Picton Rd near Almond St, Picton
Age: 36
Funeral date: ?
Funeral location: NSW Police Academy, Goulburn
Buried at: Bega Cemetery, Princes Hwy ( South )
General Section 6, Row E, Lot 11
Wayne Raymond GEORGE
Hanging at the Police Driver Training School, Goulburn.
Wayne Raymond GEORGE – Grave
Wayne Raymond GEORGE – Grave
Wayne Raymond GEORGE – Grave
Wayne Raymond GEORGE memorial plaque at NSW Police Driver Training ( S.T.AM.P. ), Goulburn
WAYNE IS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance
Touch plate at the National Police Wall of Remembrance, Canberra.
Funeral location: ?
On 8 June, 1995 Senior Sergeant George was riding a police solo motor cycle from Goulburn to Sydney to attend a meeting. Whilst he was riding along Picton Road, near Almond Street, Picton his cycle was struck by a motor vehicle. The sergeant was thrown to the roadway where he was run over by a number of passing vehicles including a semi-trailer. He died as a result of injuries received.
The senior sergeant was born in 1958 and joined the New South Wales Police Force as a cadet in February, 1976. He was sworn in on 5 December, 1977. At the time of his death he was attached to the School of Traffic and Mobile Policing, Police Academy, Goulburn.
Have searched Trove and Google without success for the articles in relation to this man.
David BELL
23/08/2015
David BELL
aka Dave
Redfern Police Academy Class # 132
New South Wales Police Force
Regd. # 15502
Rank: Commenced Training at Redfern Police Academy on Monday 31 July 1972
Probationary Constable – appointed 11 September 1972
Constable – appointed 11 September 1973
Constable 1st Class – appointed 11 September 1977
Senior Constable – appointed 11 September 1981
Sergeant 3rd Class – appointed 31 December 1987
Senior Sergeant – appointed 28 August 1996
Final Rank: Senior Sergeant
Stations: ?, 24 Division ( Sutherland ), Miranda,
28 July 1974 transferred to the metropolitan special traffic patrol car crew until 30 September 1975,
East Maitland ( G.D’s ),
Maitland ( G.D’s from 25 June 1988 ),
Patrol Tactician – Cessnock ( 28 August 1996 – ),
Sector Supervisor – Cessnock
Service: From 31 July 1972to 25 October 1999 = 27 years, 2 months, 24 days Service
1989 commendation for his devoted duty during the Newcastle earthquake.
Born: Sunday 13 March 1949
Died on: Monday 25 October 1999
Cause: Fatal heart attack in the meal room of Cessnock Police Station
Age: 50 years, 7 months, 12 days
Funeral date: Thursday 28 October 1999
Funeral location: the church his father helped build in Mayfield.
Buried at: Cremated at Beresfield Crematorium, NSW
Memorial location:
Unknown with David Bell
Memorial stone for David Bell at Beresfield Crematorium
DAVE is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance * BUT SHOULD BE
As of May 2021, Dave Bell is still NOT Mentioned on the National Police Wall of Remembrance, Canberra.
Senior Sergeant Dave Bell was the Sector Supervisor at Cessnock Police Station.
On Monday 25 October 1999 he suffered a fatal heart attack in the meal room while he, Senior Constable Mick Wood & Constable Tracey Ward were having morning tea together.
Dave is still not on the list for remembrance day, despite numerous requests/inquiries with Northern Region.
Handshake At End Of Long Arm Of The Law
Newcastle Herald
Thursday April 6, 2000
Andrew Kelly
FIFTY Lower Hunter police and community members were honoured yesterday in a ceremony at Maitland Town Hall.
Awards were presented to several officers for bravery and outstanding policing, and to members of the community who have given up their time to help the police.
Hunter Region police commander Terry Collins presented six officers with the first clasp to the National Medal, recognising 25 years service, including a posthumous honour to Senior Sergeant Dave Bell, who died on duty at Cessnock last October.
Mr HICKEY (Cessnock) [11.45 a.m.]: I bring to the attention of honourable members the death of Senior Sergeant Dave BellatCessnock police station on Monday 25 October. I extend my sincere sympathies to his wife, Noelene, and their four daughters. The Cessnock community has lost a truly remarkable police officer who was extremely dedicated to his position as team co-ordinator and worked very hard building up the morale of the men around him. I first met Dave Bell at the Cessnock police station in early April and was impressed by his positive attitude to his team and his devotion to the community. He was quick to point out that if any problems existed with manning levels, as had been constantly heralded by the former Mayor of Cessnock, Merv Pine, those problems lay with District Inspector Phelps for not allocating the necessary manpower to Cessnock.
Merv Pine’s continued concern in itself had placed pressure upon those at the Cessnock police station to perform above and beyond the normal benchmark, first to appease the mayor and, second, to avoid pressure being applied to the men at the station. Dave Bell raised the issues that I had referred to him: the manning of the station and police carrying out the duties of corrective services officers during court sitting days. He suggested that it would be more beneficial for front-line policing if those duties were returned to corrective services officers.
While being shown around the station by Dave I asked him about the job of escorting prisoners from the holding bays to the court, which I considered left the police in a dangerous situation. Dave was concerned about the safety of the officers but suggested that I should raise the matter with the Minister and the department. Dave Bell’s record shows clearly what the community knew already: that he was a dedicated officer.
Senior Sergeant David Bell joined the New South Wales Police Service on 31 July 1972. After attending the Redfern academy he was stationed at No. 24 division and later worked at Miranda, where he performed highway patrol and general duties. He was promoted to the rank of constable on 11 September 1973. On 28 July 1974 Senior Sergeant Bell was transferred to duty on the metropolitan special traffic patrol car crew, and performed duties in that role until 30 September 1975, when he accepted a transfer to Maitland highway patrol. In 1977 he was promoted to the rank of constable first-class, and he devoted 11 years to this specialist class of duty. In 1981 he was promoted to the rank of senior constable.
Senior Sergeant Bell transferred to East Maitland police station in a general duties role, and in the same year achieved the rank of sergeant third-class. On 25 June 1988 he was transferred to Maitland station, where he served the community for eight years. On 14 December 1988 he received the National Medal, which rewarded him for 15 years of police service. The following year he received a commendation for his devoted duty during the Newcastle earthquake. On 28 August 1996 Sergeant Bell was promoted to the rank of senior sergeant when he took up the position of patrol tactician at Cessnock police station. He later performed general duties.
At the time of his passing Senior Sergeant David Bell was stationed at Cessnock station as the team co-ordinator for all staff at Cessnock and outlying stations. Affectionately referred to by police and colleagues as “Dave“, Senior Sergeant Bell had a unique form of respect from police of all ranks. He was a great believer in preserving the traditional ideals, attitudes and respect instilled in police during their early police days. He shared a concern for each and every person at the station, as well as the community in general. His workmates have described him as a true gentleman and scholar.
In the short time I knew Dave, I realised that was completely true. He expected from his troops a high standard of professionalism but showed equal fairness in his discipline. Nothing was a problem to him, especially when it came to his men. His door was open at all times to anyone with a concern or problem, and his confidentiality was always assured to all. I believe that, because of Dave Bell’s service to the Cessnock community, his memory should be highlighted.
Mr WHELAN (Strathfield – Minister for Police) [11.50 a.m.]: The untimely passing of Sergeant David Bell at the age of 50 is tragic. It is, indeed, a great tragedy for his wife, Noelene, and his four daughters and granddaughter. David was much loved, not only by his family but by everyone who serves in the Police Service in the area in which he worked. He was a great and strong member of the community. Yesterday I spoke to his widow and expressed sympathy for the untimely loss of such a dedicated officer. It appears to be true that the harder one works the more dedicated one becomes and that often leads to an early and untimely death. That seems to be what happened in this case.
Dave worked very hard in both the community and the Police Service. He was well respected and revered by other police for the work he did. This is a sad time. Such is the depth of feeling in the community about the untimely passing of such a wonderful police officer who was dedicated to law enforcement in New South Wales and spent so much time looking after the community that I have asked the Deputy-Speaker to represent me at Dave’s funeral today. He will be sadly missed by everyone in the New South Wales Police Service.
Truth ( Sydney ) Sunday 9 February 1913 page 12 of 12
STEAKA-DA-STOUT.
Jaeger, Jerry, and the Juice.
SLICK COPPEROS AT NICK COMINO’S
The Lady, the Lash, and the limb of the Law.
Nick and Jerry Fined £30 Apiece.
Those persons who used to find it rather convenient to visit an oyster saloon, when in search of a reviver, will probably find it rather difficult to do so now that the police have bagged one of the offending saloon keepers, who supply their customers with liquid refreshment, as well as meals on Sunday night, for most likely other saloon keepers will take warning, and drop the practice. The case referred to was one in which Nicholas Comino was proceeded against, at the Water Police Court, on Tuesday last, for selling liquor without a license, while a waiter in the saloon, named Jerry Rizos, was proceeded against for aiding and abetting in the sale of the liquor.
Mr. Young (Instructed by K. C. Rexburgh ) appeared for both defendants, who Pleaded not guilty.
Sub-Inspector Stephen said that at about 9.40 p.m.. on the 26th ultimo, in company with Sen.-Sergeant Stewart and Constable Thornley, he went to Comino’s oyster saloon, Alfred -street, City. In an upstairs room, he saw Constable Jaeger sitting at a table WITH SOME STEAK before him, also a bottle and glass. Rizos was called up to the table, and Stephen told him that Jaeger was a constable. ” He says you served him with this bottle of stout, and he paid you 2s for it, ” went on Stephen Rizos said, ” I no sell it ; he gave me tip and I gave it to him. ” Later on, when Comino was called up, and told about it, he said, ” We don’t sell liquor, we give it to our customers. At least a man may pay for it on Saturday night, and we get it in, and keep it for him. ” Stephen told him that that was not so in this case, and Comino said, ” He was here last night, ” meaning Jaeger. Cominos asked Rizos if he sold Jaeger the stout, and he replied, ” No, he gave me tip, 2s. and I gave it to him. ” A search was then made, but no liquor found, although both in a closet at the top of the stairs and in the room in which they were standing, there were about two dozen dead marines about the floor.
In answer to Mr. Young, witness said he did not mention marked money at all. He did say the man has the money on him now. When Comino spoke to Rizos, he pulled out a handful of 2s pieces and half-crowns. He knew it was customary for customers to give money to the waiters to go and get liquor. The place was well conducted. Constable Albert Adam Jaeger said, on Sunday the 26th, he received certain instructions, and went to Comino’s oyster saloon upstairs, and said to Rizos, who came to the table, ” I’ll have some steak, can you pet us A BOTTLE OF PORTER ” Rizos went away and returned with the perk. Jaeger gave him 2s telling him it was for the porter, and he nodded his head, but did not hand over any change. Witness then corroborated Stephen as to the conversation that took place. He then went on to say that, after the conversation, Rizos gave him a ticket for 1s for the meal, but, on handing Comino 2s 6d at the counter in payment, the latter said he would not take it, as it might be marked. He had been to the shop on four previous occasions, and each time had had stout, but did not give a tip. In answer to Mr. Young, Jaeger said he never gave Rizos 1/ tip on the Saturday night, or at any time. He went into the shop with a woman, but did not know her name, nor what her character was. He did not pick her up in the street, and go with her. She sat at the table, and he ordered a meal for her. She left the room, and was not present when he had the conversation with Rizos about the stout. He did hot know the woman took a message out to the other constables. Thornley gave her her instructions.
Constable Allan Hugh McMaster said on Sunday, the 26th ult., he received certain instructions, in consequence of which he went to Comino’s oyster saloon, and sat at a table close to Jaeger, who asked for a bottle of porter, which was brought, and for which he paid Jaeger.
WAS WITH A LADY.
Constable Harold Percy Lowther gave corroborative evidence.
Mr. Young submitted that there was no case against Comino, as it had not been shown he knew of the transaction between Rizos and Jaeger, and cited cases in support of his contention ; but the magistrate held that there was a case to answer against each defendant. Nicholas Comino, proprietor of the oyster saloon, said he did not in any way assist or take part in the transaction, and he did not authorise Rizos to sell liquor to customers. When called up by the constable, he denied that he kept liquor on the premises. Stephen then said, ” Your man sold a bottle to a constable here, and he has a marked 2/ in his pocket new. ” He received 1/ in payment for the steak, but did not get 2/ from Rizos.
In answer to Mr. Stephen, witness said the value of the bottle of stout was 1/, and large bottles 1/6. He saw a woman came out of the shop while he was on the footpath. On week days, people imbide a considerable quantity of liquor at his saloon. There was no place where his employees could conceal liquor. Jerry Rizos, a waiter, living at 88 Palmer-street, said on Saturday night Jaeger was in the saloon, and had some oysters. He gave witness two single shillings to get him a small bottle of stout, and was handed 1/ back, but said, ” You can have that for yourself. ” On the Sunday night he ordered a plain steak and a cup of coffee for the lady he was with. Then he said, ” You can give me a small bottle of stout. ” Rizos had a small bottle of stout on the Saturday night, and he gave his to Jaeger. He went to walk away, when Jaeger said, ” Here is SOMETHING FOR YOU. ” at the same time handing over 2/, which witness put ” down south.”
The money was given to him as a tip, and not in payment for the stout.
In answer to Mr. Stephen, Rizos said he had not made a present to any of the other customers. He gave the constable the stout for the shilling he gave him the previous night. Some of the customers have bottles of stout on Saturday night with their names on, and drink it on Sunday night. This bottle of stout had no name on it.
Mr. Love decided to convict, and both Nick and Jerry were fined £30, with- 6/ costs, in default three months’ Imprisonment with hard labor ; 24 hours was allowed to pay.
Glen Innes Examiner ( NSW ) Thursday 1 July 1915 page 7 of 10
OFF TO THE FRONT.
The following volunteers are leaving Glen Innes on Sunday night to go into camp at Liverpool prior to leaving for the front :— Hector Wm. McMaster (brother of the late Constable Allan McMaster who lost his life at the Dardanelles), Cyril John Roche, Cecil Stanley Avis, Alfred Ernest Jones, and Alfred Jones, the two latter being father and son. Private Norman and Jack Floyd, who have been on the sick list for the past couple of weeks, are also returning to camp on Sunday night.
[alert_yellow]THOMAS is NOT mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance[/alert_yellow] *NEED MORE INFO
Funeral location:
Front Inscription
On July 25th 1857, Senior Constable Thomas Cooke single-handedly faced down a rioting mob of several hundred miners at the Golden Point diggings.
The insurgents were on their way to destroy a camp of Chinese miners, who were at the time extremely unpopular on the gold-fields.
Probably no-one would have then blamed Constable Cooke if he had backed down and allowed the mob to pass, but through his courage and determination to see the rule of Law enforced, he prevented what would otherwise have been a shameful massacre.
Let his name be remembered in honour.
Senior Constable Thomas Cooke
Senior Constable Thomas Cooke : 28-May-2011
Photographs supplied by Kent Watson
Plaque commemorates Senior Constable Thomas Cooke.
In 1857, Thomas Cooke, undoubtedly saved the lives of a number of Chinese miners from a public riot that could have had grave consequences for the young colony of Victoria. The foray commenced near the bottom of Golden Point, and out about a mile from the chief camp. The ringleaders of the affray tore down and destroyed mining equipment owned by the Chinese and the situation escalated.
Senior Constable Cooke boldly placed himself in front of the mob and by his presence of mind, tact and discretion, lives were probably saved, and the Chinese camp not destroyed. A compromise was reached, giving the Chinese permission to remain for several more days. On leaving the police force Cooke took up the running of The Panama store at Chewton and suicided by hanging on the 28 August 1882.
What a wonderful tribute …thank you for bringing us this introduction to a man without whom the world is a poorer place.
Thanks Chris. It happened a couple of years after we got here and was a great tragedy. I really feel for his family and the loss of a good man.
I stumbled across this post today… For some reason Glen came to my mind, and I did a search. Maybe this all came about as I saw a photo of his gorgeous sister and his 2 beautiful children.
Glen was a friend and I know his family well. He was a great man and it was an extremely sad day the day he left this life.
hi Vicki, sorry I hadn’t realised I’d omitted to reply. Thanks for sharing…it was indeed a tragic day for all concerned…we have a connection through the other officer that day though we didn’t know him at the time.