Robert Christie was born in Forfar, Scotland in 1882. He joined the Queensland Police Force as Constable 1461 on July 26, 1911. On January 21, 1913, Christie married Elizabeth Mulvenna without the permission of the Police Commissioner and was required to resign in April 1914. However, on account of his past good work, was accepted for re-appointed that same month. Robert left the police in 1918 to enlist in the AIF, as many Police officers were given leave to do so. He survived the war and returned to Queensland to be re-appointed on November 6, 1919.
Across his twenty-nine years of service, Christie was transferred to Roma Street , Rosalie, West End, Coen; Cairns; Cooktown, Mossman and Fortitude Valley and Toowoomba police stations. Christie was promoted Acting Sergeant on July 18, 1929, a rank he would hold until his retirement in 1941.
During his career Robert Christine was awarded a Medal for Merit while stationed at Roma Street and two favourable records while stationed in South Brisbane and Coen respectively. In May 1913 Constable Christie was awarded a Medal for Merit for good police duty in stopping a runaway horse attached to a spring dray near Roma Street railway gates. The first Favourable Record was awarded on the September 11, 1916 for brave action in stopping a horse attached to an empty spring dray along Tribune Street, South Brisbane; and the second in April 1930 whilst stationed at Coen for the arrest of Michael O’Dwyer on a charge of Manslaughter.
Acting Sergeant Robert Christie retired on February 20, 1941 after 29 years of service.
However his lucky run was not yet over, in 1944 Christie, won two Golden Casket lottery prizes, one in September and the seconded in November of that year; totalling £7,800 which would have the same buying power as $241 000 has in today’s money.
Robert Stewart Christie passed away at the age of 63 in March 1945. A solider of three wars he was survived by his two sons in the AIF, his wife and a daughter. Another son who also served in the AIF, died 14 months prior to his father, in a Japanese prison camp in Burma but notification came only two days before Robert Christie’s death but he was not told of the tragedy.
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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 at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.
Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au
“FROM THE VAULT: Robert Stewart Christie – a very lucky man” 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