At 1.30pm on September 16, 1914 Mr Benjamin Andrews reported to police that his horse and sulky had been stolen from the front of the Rowes Café in Edward Street, Brisbane. A description of the thief was furnished, a man who had approached Mr Andrews begging for lunch, and Constable Florence O’Driscoll was sent to search for the stolen property. On information received, Constable O’Driscoll rode a tram to Fortitude Valley then tracked the stolen sulky on foot to the Waterloo Hotel, Breakfast Creek Road, then back to Wickham and Brunswick Streets, past the Jubilee Hotel on St Pauls Terrace, and along Campbell Street to the Bowen Hills Railway Station.
Members of the public supplied more information; the sulky was now being driven by two men. Whilst the Constable formulating his next move he noticed a horse attached to a sulky proceeding towards his direction. He walked into the centre of the street and signalled the driver of the sulky to stop, but the driver whipped up the horse and it galloped towards him. O’Driscoll stepped toward the sulky and caught the reins in an effort to slow the beast but was dragged a distance before the horse stopped.
Once Constable O’Driscoll ascertained that this was the stolen property, he stepped up into the sulky to arrest the two men but the driver attacked him, and the horse bolted down the street. O’Driscoll continued to be assaulted whilst he grappled with the reins, the sulky careering down the road. Eventually the Constable gained control of the horse and subdued the thief with handcuffs, with the help of a passing police officer. The second man in the sulky appeared not to realise the driver had stolen the carriage. The arrested man later appeared in court, charged with unlawfully using a bay horse, pled guilty and was imprisoned with hard labour for 12 months.
On October 9, 1914, Constable O’Driscoll was awarded a Medal for Merit for good police duty performed in arresting the criminal named Albert Hunt at Bowen Hills, for unlawfully using a horse and in obtaining possession of the horse attached to a vehicle at great personal risk. O’Driscoll’s policing career of 34 years saw him retire at the rank of Inspector in 1946 with 8 favourable records to his name and 4 rewards totalling £28 8s.
Left to Right: Sub Inspectors J. Smith, Florence M. O’Driscoll, Charles J. L. Perrin, and Commissioner Cecil J. Carroll, outside Parliament House, Brisbane, c1937.
Image No. PM3112 courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
Introduction of the Medal for Merit
On 4 October 1906 Police Commissioner William Cahill signed a memorandum announcing the institution of a departmental gallantry award to be known as the Medal for Merit. The medal was awarded when ‘a member of the Police Force, in the performance of police duty, displays preeminent bravery’. Between 1906 and 1917 at least 103 Medals for Merit were awarded.
The obverse side of the medal shows an image of King George V, the reverse shows the Queensland state shield with the words Queensland Police For Merit along with the Latin phrase Audax At Fidelis (Bold But Faithful).
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Two faces of the Queensland Police Medal for Merit.
Image courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum.
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This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing. 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, 200 Roma Street, Brisbane. Email contact: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM the VAULT – Constable O’Driscoll” 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