Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran (25 October 1797 – 16 August 1870) was the first Police Commissioner and first Police

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Early life

O'Halloran was born in Berhampore (now

Baharampur Berhampore (, ) is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. As of 2011 census, Berhampore urban agglomeration had a population of 305,609 and is the seventh largest city in West Bengal (after Kolkata, Asansol, Siliguri, D ...

)

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the second of eight sons of Major-General Sir

Joseph O'Halloran Joseph O'Halloran Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, GCB (13 August 1763 – 3 November 1843) was a major-general in the East India Company. Background O'Halloran was the youngest son of Sylvester O'Halloran, born in county Limerick, Ir ...

, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Colonel Nicholas Bayly, M.P., and niece of Henry, 1st

Earl of Uxbridge Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

. Thomas was a grandson of Irish surgeon

Sylvester O'Halloran Sylvester O'Halloran (31 December 1728 – 11 August 1807) was an Irish surgeon with an abiding interest in Gaelic poetry and history. For most of his life he lived and practised in Limerick, and was later elected a member of the Royal Iri ...

, and brother to

William Littlejohn O'Halloran William Littlejohn O'Halloran (5 May 1806 – 15 July 1885) was a British Army officer and public servant in South Australia. Early life and army O'Halloran was born in Ireland on 5 May 1806(or born at Berhampore, India, and came to England in 18 ...

. O'Halloran entered the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

(or Marlow) in 1808 and at 16 he was commissioned into the

17th Foot The Leicestershire Regiment (Royal Leicestershire Regiment after 1946) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, with a history going back to 1688. The regiment saw service for three centuries, in numerous wars and conflicts such as both ...

and sailed for India. He served in the Nepal war during the years 1814, 1815, and 1816, became

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in June 1817, and served in the Deccan war during that and the following year. On 1 August 1821 he married Miss Anne Goss of

Dawlish Dawlish is an English seaside resort town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, from the county town of Exeter and from the larger resort of Torquay. Its 2011 population of 11,312 was estimated at 13,355 in 2019. It is t ...

, Devonshire, who died in 1823 in Calcutta, leaving two children. In 1822 he exchanged from the 17th to the 44th Regiment, which he joined in Calcutta in January 1823. In 1824 he was ordered with the left wing of the 44th to Chittagong, where he arrived early in June, and was appointed paymaster, quartermaster, and interpreter. On 30 October he was appointed brigade-major to Brigadier-General Dunkin, C.B., who commanded the Sylket division of the army during the Burmese war, and served on his staff until his death in Nov. 1825. He received a medal for war service in India, for Nepal and Ava. O'Halloran transferred to the

99th Foot The 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1824. It amalgamated with the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Duke of Edinburgh's (Wiltshire Regiment) in 1881. History Formation The ...

as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1827. He returned to England after twenty years in India in 1834. On 10 July 1834 he married Miss Jane Waring, of Newry, County Down, and retired on half-pay in October of that year. Soon afterwards he transferred to the Coldstream Guards and was on half pay until he transferred again to the 97th Foot in May 1837.

South Australia

In 1838 O'Halloran retired from the army by the sale of his commission, and sailed for South Australia the same year with his wife Jane O'Halloran, their sons Thomas Joseph Shuldham O'Halloran and George Waring Wright O'Halloran and his daughter Annie Helen Lucy O'Halloran (by his first wife), in the ''Rajasthan'', landing at Glenelg in November 1838. He established a farm, ''Lizard Lodge'' in the

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

suburb which now bears his name,

O'Halloran Hill O'Halloran Hill is a suburb in the south of Adelaide, South Australia, situated on the hills south of the O'Halloran Hill Escarpment, which rises from the Adelaide Plains and located 18 km from the city centre via the South Road, Adelaide, M ...

. He was made a J.P. in 1839. He was gazetted Major- Commandant of the South Australian Militia on 26 February 1840, and on 8 June as Commissioner of Police. In December 1839 he was appointed by

George Gawler Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, KH, (21 July 1795 – 7 May 1869) was the second Governor of South Australia, at the same time serving as Resident Commissioner, from 17 October 1838 until 15 May 1841. Biography Early life Gawler, born on 21 ...

as one of four members of a Board of Police Commissioners. Upon the dismissal of the founder and first commander of the police, Superintendent Henry Inman in May 1840, the Board was abolished and O'Halloran was appointed under a new title of Police Commissioner. He retired from Government service in 1843 as a result of his disinclination to serve as both Police Commissioner and Police Magistrate. Upon his retirement he was appointed as a member of the

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Parli ...

, retaining the position until February 1851. In March 1857 he was elected as a member of the Legislative Council and served until his resignation in June 1863.

''Maria'' controversy

In June 1840, the brig '' Maria'' set sail from

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

towards

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

. By July 1840, stories and rumours had circulated that all 26 people on board had survived a shipwreck, but had been killed by members of the Milmenrura, a clan of the Tanganekald people, along the Coorong. After a police investigation, which discovered several mutilated bodies and determined who the murderers were believed to be,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Gawler ordered O'Halloran (as police commissioner) and Police Inspector

Alexander Tolmer Alexander Tolmer (1815 – 7 March 1890) was a South Australian police officer and Police Commissioner. He was educated at Plymouth, Rouen, Maidstone and Hawkhurst. He migrated to South Australia in 1840 where he was made sub-inspector by Govern ...

to lead a party of police and sailors to the area. His orders were to find and execute those responsible. On 22 August 1840, after several days of interviews, investigations and a

drumhead court-martial A drumhead court-martial is a court-martial held in the field to hear urgent charges of offences committed in action. The term sometimes has connotations of summary justice. The term is said to originate from the use of a drum as an improvised ...

, two Milmenrura men were publicly hanged on the Coorong in front of 65 people from their tribe. O'Halloran then told the people (through an interpreter) that their bodies were not to be taken down and that this was to be a warning against violence towards Europeans by

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

people. This was one of the most contentious incidents in South Australian legal history. At the time, Aboriginals in South Australia were considered

British subjects The term "British subject" has several different meanings depending on the time period. Before 1949, it referred to almost all subjects of the British Empire (including the United Kingdom, Dominions, and colonies, but excluding protectorates ...

, and therefore deemed to be under the protection of British law. Gawler's ordering of a drumhead court-martial and the executions was not well received by the London authorities and contributed to his removal as governor. At that same time O'Halloran's younger brother, Captain (later Major General) Henry Dunn O'Halloran (1800–71), 69th Regt., posted at

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada, was conducting a significant study of the language and customs of the indigenous

Mi'kmaq people The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations in Canada, First Nations people of the Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's ...

Character

Although O'Halloran attracted a reputation for belligerence, one of his mounted troopers of the 1840s related that, "Old Major O'Halloran used to say 'I never hated a man longer than a day'".

Family

O'Halloran married Anne Goss (died 1823) on 1 August 1821; they had two daughters, including: *Anne Helen Lucy O'Halloran (19 May 1822 – 26 March 1898) married Francis Algernon Disney Roebuck **Alice Mary Disney-Roebuck (died 5 May 1869) married Cmdr John Brabazon Vivian RN (1836 – 21 February 1874) of

HMS Achilles Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named ''Achilles'', after the Greek hero Achilles. Four others, two of them prizes, had the French spelling of the name, ''Achille''. * was an 8-gun schooner purchased in 1747. She was captured in 1748 ...

Francis Henry Algernon Disney-Roebuck Francis Henry Algernon Disney-Roebuck (7 October 1846 – 9 January 1919) was an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer. Disney-Roebuck was born at Trinidad in October 1846 to Anne Helen Lucy O'Halloran and her husband, Francis ...

(7 October 1846 – 9 January 1919), English cricketer and army officer. He married again, on 10 July 1834, to Jane Waring; they had three sons and one daughter, among them: *Eldest son Thomas Joseph Shuldham O'Halloran SM (27 April 1835 – 9 January 1922), married Harriet Julia Woodforde, daughter of the Adelaide Coroner. **Their son Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran KC (23 February 1865 – 7 June 1945) was a lawyer and football administrator in South Australia. *Eliza O'Halloran married farmer and flour miller Samuel White in 1853. O'Halloran died at his home "Lizard Lodge", and was buried at Christ Church, O'Halloran Hill, an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church which he helped to establish and is also located in the suburb, now overlooking the former ''Glenthorne''

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

Research station.

Notes

References

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