Hector Neil McLarty (15 March 1851 – 24 November 1912) was a Western Australian Police officer, and customs detective. During his service as a police officer he accompanied future Premier

John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

on two expeditions and was in charge of the officers attempting to capture the

Fenian The word ''Fenian'' () served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood, secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated ...

escapees on the

Catalpa ''Catalpa'', commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia. Description Most ''Catalpa'' are decidu ...

Personal life

McLarty married Elizabeth Campbell in March 1875. They had six children: three boys and three girls. The eldest, Campbell McLarty, was one of the pastrolists to open up the north west of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

for

grazier Grazier may refer to: *A person engaged in pastoral farming People *Margaret Hayes Grazier (1916–1999), an American librarian and educator *Colin Grazier (1920–1942), a Royal Navy sailor * John Grazier (born 1945), an American painter * Kevin ...

s. Roy McLarty received the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

and went on to become the Chief Executive for the

AMP Society AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products (through AMP Banking) including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in Sy ...

. His youngest son, Duncan Keith, was killed in action on 25 September 1915 during the Battle of Loos. The youngest of his daughters, Muriel Eileen McLarty, was the oldest surviving McLarty to attend the

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

official opening of

Old Blythewood Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...

homestead near Pinjarra by Governor

Wallace Kyle Air Chief Marshal Sir Wallace Hart Kyle, (22 January 1910 – 31 January 1988) was an Australian who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a senior commander and later as the 24th Governor of Western Australia. Born in Kalgoorlie, Western Austr ...

. Old Blythewood was built by Hector McLarty's father John in 1851 and was given to the National Trust by the McLarty family in 1974.

Police Officer

Hector McLarty joined the Western Australian Police in June 1868 at the age of 17 years. In March 1870, as a police constable, he was part of John Forrest's expedition to survey a route for the first overland

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

. The expedition plan was to start at Esperance tracing the route of

John Eyre John Eyre may refer to: Politicians *John Eyre (died 1581), Member of Parliament for Wiltshire and Salisbury *John Eyre (died 1639), MP for Cricklade * John Eyre (1659–1709), MP for Galway Borough, son of the above *John Eyre (died 1745), MP for ...

's previous crossing from

Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

to Esperance. They arrived at the Dempster farm in Esperance in April to replenish before commencing the successful expedition, returning from Adelaide by steamship in September 1870. Between August and November 1871 the same expedition party returned to Esperance explore pastoral land they had identified north-northeast of Esperance during the first expedition. McLarty was promoted to sergeant on 25 May 1874 while assigned to Perth's central police station. On 17 April 1876 McLarty led a group of 8 men, 2 pensioner guards from Perth and 6 police constables from

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...

, in pursuit of the six Fenian prisoners that had escaped from the Fremantle Prison. They boarded the ''Georgette'' in Perth and steamed out of the Swan river in search of the ''Catalpa''. Unsuccessful, they returned that night to Fremantle to refuel. Recommencing the search the following day, they succeeded in finding the ''Catalpa'', and firing a shot across at the vessel they ordered it to stop or they would sink it. The captain of the ''Catalpa'' pointed at the United States flag and indicated that they were in international waters and that such action would be an act of war. The ''Georgette'' then returned to Fremantle; in his report on the incident McLarty wrote of the frustration and humiliation of letting the ''Catapla'' sail away. In 1883 McLarty moved to

Albany, Western Australia Albany ( ; nys, Kinjarling) is a port city in the Great Southern region in the Australian state of Western Australia, southeast of Perth, the state capital. The city centre is at the northern edge of Princess Royal Harbour, which is a ...

. While there he sent a telegraph to Esperance instructing Lance Corporal Truslove to intercept suspected

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

James Cody James A. Cody (born June 19, 1965) is a retired airman of the United States Air Force who served as the 17th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force from 24 January 2013 until his retirement on February 17, 2017. He served as the personal adviser t ...

, who was accused of stealing two horses. When Truslove caught Cody he refused to stop; Truslove then shot Cody. Taking him to Dempster property in Esperance for treatment, and despite the aid of a doctor giving instructions via telegraph from Albany, Cody died ten days later. At the age of 33, Hector McLarty retired from the police force on 29 February 1884.

Later career

Hector McLarty moved his family to the timber town of

Canning Mills Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although un ...

in the

Darling Scarp The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north–south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia. The escarpment extends generally north of Bindoon, to th ...

. There he worked for the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

on the Eastern Railway, while his wife was the Postmistress for the town during the early 1890s. McLarty then took up a position as a detective with the Western Australian Customs on 1 July 1895. As part of the

Federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...

the WA Customs service was amalgamated with similar services in the other States to form the Australian Customs Service, Hector remained with the ACS until he retired on 30 June 1911.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McLarty, Hector Neil 1851 births 1912 deaths Australian police officers Convictism in Western Australia Explorers of Western Australia Postal history of Australia