Born on the 4th July 1864, in Grenagh, county Cork, Ireland, Michael O’Sullivan led an outstanding career as a police officer and had acquired many achievements throughout his service. Up until the age of 17 Michael was raised in Ireland, but decided to leave so as to avoid trouble after he had smeared rotten apples on the blarney stone. Upon his arrival in Rockhampton, Queensland, Michael received a job which involved clearing land for a telegraph line. Soon after he joined an engineering firm known as Burns & Twiggs, this lifestyle did not suite Michael though and he decided to join the police force.
Chief Inspector Michael O’Sullivan just before retirement.
Image courtesy The Daily Mail, Brisbane, August 12, 1932
Once he arrived in Brisbane he learned that to join you must be over the age of 20, ignoring the notice Michael lied about his age, stating he was 20 years old, and was placed into officer training. After his training Michael was appointed as a Mounted Constable in 1883 and was posted all around Queensland, some places included such as Taroom, Roma, Dulbydill and Rockhampton. Many times Michael was mentioned in the newspaper as an outstanding officer for the multiple cases he has completed, these ranged from catching murderers and thieves to rescuing travellers out in the bush.
On one such occasion, in 1920, Michael was chosen to be in charge of protecting the Prince of Wales, Edward the 7th. During a visit Michael was responsible for saving the Princes life. Before the Prince was to arrive at Coochin Coochin Homestead, Michael was informed by a friend that a drunken man was heard spouting threats to the Prince and that he was going to “blow his lights out”. Once he had obtained this information Michael began a search and soon found the man, he then disarmed him of a revolver the man was carrying and detained him without trouble.
Edward, Prince of Wales, 1919. Image courtesy Wikipedia
Not only was he responsible for ensuring the Prince was not in danger, Michael was, at times, made to deal with the many women who wanted to greet the future king. In his book ‘Cameo of Crimes’, Michael states “Another women begged me to present His Royal Highness a bouquet of flowers grown by her little girl in her garden. In this case I can say the child’s bouquet reached the Prince’s room.” Because of the amount of years of service and the death of his wife Michael O’Sullivan retired in 1923. He soon remarried in 1925 and later on died on 5th of October 1950 at the age of 86.
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available. The article was written by Museum Volunteer Jake Creevey. The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT- Michael O’Sullivan” by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode