What is a Police Gazette?
Compiled to be distributed amongst the Police Force only, Police
Gazettes
contain details and information that can not be found anywhere else.
Produced at
regular intervals (usually once a week), it was a way of making
information
available to all in the Police Force throughout the whole state.
What information can be found in a New South Wales Police Gazette?
The information contained in the Police Gazettes does vary a little
from
year to year, but overall you will find details of any changes within
the police
force which are all listed (promotions, demotions, discharges,
resignations,
deaths), information is also given on housebreak-ins, robberies, arson,
murders,
rewards, warrants issued, lists of arrests and discharges, lost horses
and
cattle, deserters from services and from families, escaped prisoners,
missing
friends, lost and found items, and reports on those released. Notices
from
interstate police gazettes are usually included if it was felt that the
person
may be heading towards that state, and also in this year's issue you
will find
many references to convicts.
How can this help me?
Anyone researching their family will have a 'lost' family member or
two! You
may well find them listed here, being on either side of the law. Or
maybe they
were a Policeman who transferred to another department or division, or
someone
that was a victim of a crime. You can find the physical details on
persons
listed here, missing, wanted or released, which helps to paint a picture
of them
(name, aliases used, age, height, colour hair, colour eyes,
distinguishing
features, even colour clothing worn).
Far from being just a unique and extremely fascinating resource for
local,
family and social historians - they are useful for anyone with an
interest in
New South Wales in 1924. The CD contains all issues that were released
during
that year.
Example entries taken from the 9 April 1924 issue:
Return of Prisoners Tried at the Different Circuit Courts of Quarter Sessions [this is only 3 entries out of a whole page]
Name: George Cosgrove
Offence: Attempt to steal
On whom committed: Holden Bros.
Where and when tried: Sydney O.S., 4th February, 1924
Sentence: 2 years H.L.
Name: Francis Keith Twogood
Offence: Embezzlement
On whom committed: later Conservation Commission
Where and when tried: Sydney O.S., 4th February, 1924
Sentence: 9 months H.L. Sentence suspended under the Crimes Act, also to pay the sum of £6 to the Clerk of the Peace within three months.
Name: Edward Joseph Ronan
Offence: Assault and robbery
On whom committed: John Hussey
Where and when tried: Sydney O.S., 4th February, 1924
Sentence: Pleaded guilty to common assault, 2 years H.L. Concurrent with sentence now serving.
A truly amazing source of information, let alone the fascinating reading and learning about the social history of the time. This CD contains high quality scanned images of the whole years worth of issues. This CD has been bookmarked for easy navigation, and pages can be searched, browsed, enlarged and printed out if required.
Click here to download a file of sample pages from this book
Right click on the link and select "save as" - to a location on your hard drive. The sampler can be opened, navigated and searched as with the full CD file/s.
Sample files usually contain the title page, contents, some introductory pages and sample pages from the body of the book. Often the complete index from the original book is included.
