Sir, — I have the honor to furnish the following report for your information of such of the proceedings of 28th ult. in relation to the capture of the Kelly gang as occurred whilst I was in command of the party of police carrying on the attack.
Tag: John Sadleir
A magisterial inquiry was held this day at Powell’s Hotel, Benalla, on the body of Martin Cherry, who was shot at Glenrowan on Monday.
“Sir, — I have with much pain read the sub-leader in your Thursday’s issue. To the credit of journalism be it said, it is very unusual to observe remarks in newspapers prejudicial to any person awaiting trial.”
“It is stated that Dick Hart openly dared this police at M’Donnell’s hotel, Glenrowan, to interfere in any way with the funerals of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart.”
“A magisterial enquiry was held this morning at Powell’s Victoria Hotel, before Mr. McBean, J.P., on the body of Martin Cherry, who was accidentally shot at Mrs. Jones’s Hotel, Glenrowan, on Monday, during the attack on the Kelly gang. Inspector Sadlier conducted the enquiry.”
“The board appointed to inquire into and report upon the mode of distribution of the rewards offered by the Victorian and New South Wales Governments for the capture of the Kelly gang of outlaws have, as was intimated in a telegram which appeared in our last issue, sent in their report to the Chief Secretary.”
“No mention having been made in any of the official reports of the horses that took such an active part in fulfilling the frightful tragedy at Sherritt’s, where the murder took place, and Glenrowan, at the destruction of the Kelly gang, it is a matter of public interest to know what became of them, and to see the animals that could carry a heavy man incased in armor, weighing 97lbs.”
In my poking around through various documents related to the story of the gang I found a bundle through the Public Records Office of Victoria that included a list of items that had been recovered from the gang, mostly at Glenrowan.
“Speaking about the black trackers reminds me of a humorous incident which occurred during the attack on Jones’s hotel to one of these gentlemen. Constable Milne and Constable Gascoigne were standing behind a tree in front of the house keeping a steady fire directed towards it, when a black boy of O’Connor’s, standing under cover a few yards off, called out at he wanted to light his pipe, and asked the constables for a match, Milne thereupon placed a few matches in a blank cartridge, and plugging the end with a piece of paper, threw it towards the tracker. The cartridge, however, did not fall within three or four yards of the tracker, and for a moment the latter was puzzled how to reach it without exposing himself to the fire of the outlaws. At last, after glancing earnestly towards Jones’s hotel, he called out, ‘Ned you —— ; don’t shoot me till I get the matches,’ and sprang forward at the same instant as one of the outlaws sent a bullet within an inch of his head as he stooped, and which would have gone through his body if he had been standing straight. In return for this salute — as soon as the tracker got back to his shelter — he delivered the contents of his rifle into the house, with the remark, ‘Take that Mr, Kelly, and put it in your pipe.'”
Mr. John Sadleir, who died at Elsternwick (V.), on September 22, aged 86 years, was born in Ireland in 1833, and arrived in Victoria on November 12, 1852. At the suggestion of an ex-officer of the 75th Regiment, whom he had known in Ireland, he joined (on December 1, 1852) the Police Cadets, a special corps formed by Governor Latrobe. Many members of this corps subsequently rose to high rank in the police force of Victoria, and it is believed that Mr. Sadleir was one of the last two survivors of it.
Glenrowan 