Hussey Malone Chomley (8 August 1832 – 12 July 1906) was an Irish-born police officer who joined the

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

in the

colony of Victoria In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

in 1852, and served for fifty years, including twenty years as

chief commissioner A chief commissioner is a commissioner of a high rank, usually in chief of several commissioners or similarly styled officers. Colonial In British India the gubernatorial style was chief commissioner in various (not all) provinces (often after be ...

from 1882 to 1902. He was the first chief commissioner to be appointed from the ranks of the police force itself.

Early life

Chomley was born at

Merrion Square Merrion Square () is a Georgian garden square on the southside of Dublin city centre. History The square was laid out in 1752 by the estate of Viscount FitzWilliam and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. The demand fo ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

on 8 August 1832. His father, the Reverend Francis Chomley, was rector of Wicklow, and his mother, Mary Elizabeth Griffith, was the daughter of Richard Griffith, a member of parliament for Askeaton in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...

. Reverend Chomley died in 1847, and in February 1849, Mary Chomley emigrated to

Port Phillip District The Port Phillip District was an administrative division of the Colony of New South Wales from 9 September 1836 until 1 July 1851, when it was separated from New South Wales and became the Colony of Victoria. In September 1836, NSW Colonial Sec ...

in the Colony of New South Wales with her seven sons.

Police career

After leaving school in the early 1850s, Chomley went to the goldfields during the

Victorian gold rush The Victorian gold rush was a period in the history of Victoria, Australia approximately between 1851 and the late 1860s. It led to a period of extreme prosperity for the Australian colony, and an influx of population growth and financial capit ...

, but was unsuccessful. He joined the Melbourne and County of Bourke Police in September 1852, which merged with other county forces a year later to become

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victoria Police had over 22,300 staff, comprising over 16,700 ...

. Chomley rose through the ranks quickly—by 1854 he was a sub-inspector at Creswick, and was later one of four in charge of a detachment of 70 mounted police troopers held in reserve at the Eureka Stockade during the

Eureka Rebellion The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, which ...

. Promoted to paymaster and inspector, he was posted to supervise various minor gold rushes throughout the colony. In 1862, he returned to Bendigo and was promoted to superintendent, running the police station there, and later the Bourke and Geelong districts. During Chomley's posting at Geelong, the outlaw

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...

and his gang were at large. Chomley volunteered to help pursue the Kelly gang, but was instead sent to

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

to recruit

Australian native police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

for a permanent detachment of Aboriginal trackers in Victoria. After Kelly's capture and execution, the Victorian Government called a royal commission chaired by

Francis Longmore Francis Longmore (1826 – 1 May 1898) was a politician in colonial Victoria (Australia), Victoria, commissioner of railways and roads 1869 to 1870 and for Crown Lands 1875 and 1877 to 1880. Longmore was the youngest son of George Longmore, a ...

to examine the conduct of the police during the Kelly outbreak. The commission claimed the career of the chief commissioner, Frederick Standish, with Chomley considered as his replacement along with fellow superintendents Charles Nicolson, Frank Hare, John Sadleir and Frederick Winch—however in 1881, the inquiry ended the police careers of the other candidates as well, who were forced to retire as police magistrates. Chomley, who had been in Queensland during the Kelly affair was the only candidate with his career untarnished by the Longmore commission's findings, and in March 1881, new premier Bryan O'Loghlen appointed him as acting chief commissioner—the first career police officer to hold the role—with a directive to report on his ideas for re-organising the force. Chomley was officially appointed as chief commissioner on 6 March 1882.

Death

Chomley died at his home, "Oyama", on Huntingtower Road, Armadale on 12 July 1906.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chomley, Hussey 1832 births 1906 deaths Chief Commissioners of Victoria Police Irish emigrants to colonial Australia Police officers from County Dublin