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

Police Commissioner A police commissioner is the head of a police department, responsible for overseeing its operations and ensuring the effective enforcement of laws and maintenance of public order. They develop and implement policies, manage budgets, and coordinate ...

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 judi ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

Early life and education

O'Halloran was born in Berhampore on 25 October 1797 (now

Baharampur Berhampore (), also known as Baharampur (), is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. Berhampore is the administrative headquarters of the Murshidabad district. As of 2011 census, Berhampore is the seventh largest cit ...

)

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, the second of eight sons of Major-General Sir Joseph O'Halloran, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Colonel Nicholas Bayly, M.P., and niece of Henry, 1st

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. Thomas was a grandson of Irish surgeon

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

, and brother to William Littlejohn O'Halloran. O'Halloran entered the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC) was a United Kingdom, British military academy for training infantry and cavalry Officer (armed forces), officers of the British Army, British and British Indian Army, Indian Armies. It was founded in 1801 at Gre ...

(or Marlow) in 1808 and at 16 he was commissioned into the 17th Foot 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 Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

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 a seaside resort town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Teignbridge district in Devon, England. It is located on the south coast of England at a distance of from the city of Exeter and a similar distance from the to ...

, 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 as a

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

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

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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

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suburb which now bears his name, O'Halloran Hill. 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 Colonel George Gawler (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 July 1795, was t ...

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

. 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 South Australian House of Assembly, H ...

, 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 Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

'' set sail from

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towards

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

. 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 The Tanganekald people were or are an Aboriginal Australian people of South Australia, today classed as part of the Ngarrindjeri nation. The clan name Milmenrura (also spelt Milmendura, Milmendjuri, or Milmendjeri) was often used in the early da ...

, 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 politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Gawler ordered O'Halloran (as police commissioner) and Police Inspector Alexander Tolmer 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 render summary justice for offenses committed in action. The term is said to originate from drums used as improvised tables and drumheads as writing surfaces at fast-track mil ...

, 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 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

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

Mi'kmaq people The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

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'".

Death

O'Halloran died on 16 August 1870 at his home "Lizard Lodge", and was buried at Christ Church, O'Halloran Hill, an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

Research station.

Descendants

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 ** Francis Henry Algernon Disney-Roebuck (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.

Notes

References

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