The Northern Territory's first Commissioner of Police, Major George Vernon Dudley, who had received the Military Cross and DSO during WWl, had deserted from the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1922 ; he eventually came to Australia after serving in the British South African Police Force and even the Royal Canadian Mounties .
He had been involved in "Bloody Sunday" at Dublin's Croke Park on November 21,1920 where police opened fire on a crowd of 5000 at a Gaelic football match between Tipperary and Dublin. Seven were shot dead, one a footballer, five were fatally wounded, two were trampled to death .
The terrible event , during the Irish War of Independence , began when the Irish Republican Army (IRA)set out to assassinate the Cairo Gang , a team of British undercover agents working and living in Dublin. Most were British Army officers ,one a member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. In the raids , 13 were killed and six wounded.
Later that afternoon a convoy of British security forces ,police and auxiliaries approached the park with orders to surround the grounds , guard the exits and search everyone for weapons .
However . when the police arrived it was said they had been fired on first by IRA sentries , a claim not proven. Police kept shooting for 90 seconds and their commander , Major Mills, later admitted his men were " excited and out of hand."
At a court of inquiry, there were two, the findings kept secret for many years , it was said by the time major Dudley reached the ground the worst of the incident had passed . One account said Dudley was directing traffic in the police convoy . Black and Tans from the leading vehicles rushed down the passage at the Canal End exit , forced their way through the turnstiles onto the field and started firing rapidly. Major Dudley gave a business like account of what happened at the inquiry, saying that he went into the grounds and told everyone within hearing to put up their hands and keep still . From that time there had been no shooting from his side of the ground
On February 2, 1922, at Londonderry Prison, he was charged with embezzlement of 347 pounds 16 shillings and eightpence ; he subsequently deserted and in his absence was dismissed from the force by the Chief of Police .
On January 10, 1923, Dudley , in Fiji, wrote seeking a job in the Northern Territory Police Force , stating he had been in the Royal Irish Constabulary until "the demobilisation."
During his time as the NT Commissioner of Police he travelled far and wide, got along well with officers, but had a drinking problem and became hopelessly in debt to various people , including Chinese shopkeepers and publicans.
Territory Administrator , F. C.Urquhart, a former Queensland Police Commissioner, expressed concern about Major Dudley,pictured, over his "want of discretion" in respect of visiting hotels and "occasional indulgences" in liquor, which had given "rise to remarks." His appointment as Commissioner was terminated from December 31,1927.
Following this, he served in the Victorian Police Force , enrolled for WWll and served as a drill sergeant in the Royal Australian Air Force, became a court attendant in the High Court of Australian and the Supreme Court of NSW , a commissionaire at the Rural Bank of NSW and was crushed to death by a ferry at Sydney's Neutral Bay wharf in 1949.
Author Jim Herlihy's comprehensive book on the Royal Irish Constabulary , with further information on Major Dudley , tells how in the period 1816 to 1922 some 85,000 men served in the Royal Irish Constabulary and its predecessor forces. It tells how to find information on these policemen, providing an excellent resource for those interested in the history of the RIC, and the revolutionary period generally.
Chapters on the history of policing in Ireland (to illustrate the type of men in the force, their backgrounds and their lifestyles etc.), are followed by a section on tracing ancestors in the RIC.
This new edition details members of the RIC who were rewarded for their service during the Young Ireland Rising, 1848, the Fenian Rising, 1867, the Easter Rising, 1916 and the War of Independence, 1919–21. Also identified are members of the RIC who were killed in the line of duty from 1916 to 1922, members who volunteered for service in the Mounted Staff Corps or the Commissariat during the Crimean War, members who served as drivers or orderlies on secondment to the Irish Hospital Corps in the Boer War in 1900, as well as members who volunteered and served in the British Army in the First World War. RIC recipients of the Constabulary Medal (Ireland), the King’s Police Medal or the King George V, Coronation (Police) Medal, 1911, are also listed, as are ex-RIC men who transferred to the Garda Síochána or the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 1922 and received bravery medals.
The writer of this article supplied information about Major Dudley to Irish journalist Michael Foley who was researching Bloody Sunday for a book,The Bloodied Field , mentioned on the ABC overnight.
