“I would beg to state that I was awakened on the morning of the 28th July last by Mr Hollows Telegraph Operator Benalla. He informed me that Mr Stephens (Station Master) required me on duty as soon as possible.”
Tag: Thomas Curnow
“Curnow’s life is not safe a moment here. The most bitter and horrible threats are used against him, and also against Constable Bracken, who escaped from the hotel; and Dowsett, the railway guard, who is acknowledged by officers and men to have behaved most pluckily in the fight and capture of Ned Kelly.”
“Referring today to a statement published this week that the death of Mr Michael Reardon at Bendigo, on Saturday last was believed to remove the last witness of the Kelly gang shooting at Glenrowan Inn 62 years ago, Mr D. H. Mortimer, of Somerton in the Tamworth district, said today that his father, Mr David H. Mortimer, of Leneva (Victoria), now aged 83, also witnessed the encounter.”
“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.”
“The excitement caused here by the conflict between the police and the Kellys, and the destruction of the desperate gang of outlaws, is subsiding. A general feeling of relief is experienced by the respectable inhabitants of the district, and it is pretty certain that now the gang are no longer to be feared that some of their movements during the past twelve months will be made known. Already stories concerning their movements are freely circulated, and from these it is apparent that the police have during the past month or six weeks made it very unpleasant for the outlaws.”
On Friday, September 9, a large gathering of Benalla state school children was conveyed from Benalla to Glenrowan in two special trains, for the purpose of spending the day in a picnic on the ground rendered memorable by the fight which took place upwards of a year ago between the Kelly gang and the police.
The whole of the members of the gang were very jolly, and Ned told us that they had come there to settle the black trackers, and that he would be on the spot when the train ran over the culvert, and would shoot all who were not killed. We knew we could do nothing, and therefore did not take any steps to warn those in the train of the danger. Every member of the gang was then sober. They showed us their armor, and seemed to think that the police could do them no harm. At half-past two on Monday morning Ned Kelly said something to the effect that he did not think the special train was coming, and I then asked him if we could go home. He said ‘Yes,’ and I thanked him.
Officers of the Victorian Education Department joined on Friday in the expressions of general regret of the death of Mr. Thomas Curnow, the hero teacher who saved the train containing 40 police and a number of Pressmen from destruction by the Kelly gang of bushrangers, at Glenrowan, 42 ½ years ago.
Account by Superintendent Hare of his re-assignment to the Kelly pursuit, the lead up to the siege and his involvement in the opening stage of the battle.
Thomas Curnow recounts his experience at Glenrowan as a prisoner of the Kelly Gang.
Glenrowan 