Francis Augustus Hare

Francis Augustus ("Frank") Hare (1830–1892) was a South African born British pioneer settler and police superintendent in the colony of Victoria in Australia, best known for his role in the capture of the notorious bushrangers known as the Kelly gang at the town of Glenrowan in north-west Victoria.

Born in the Cape Colony in 1830 and educated there, after a stint working on his older brother's sheep farm at Paarl, he left the Cape to try his luck on the Victorian gold fields, sailing to Australia in 1852. After a series of adventures and some success prospecting, an opportunity arose to secure a position in the newly reformed Victorian Mounted police. He was at the outset sent to Beechworth to oversee the gold escorts. During the next fifteen years he worked throughout the north-west and central goldfields and was instrumental in the capture of the bushranger Harry Power. By the end of the 1860s he reached the rank of Superintendent and was later promoted to the Richmond Barracks, (Melbourne) overseeing the Bourke District.

He led the hunt for the Kelly gang (Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart) on two occasions in the late 1870s. He was to prove unsuccessful on his first attempt and had to retire from the chase following a fall from his horse. On his second attempt when he had been specifically requested by the colony's legislature to return, he met with the gang at Glenrowan in July 1880. During the ensuing shootout, he was severely wounded. The troopers went on to capture Ned Kelly and bring him to trial, whilst the other three members of the gang were killed. Hare resigned and was appointed a police magistrate, a position he held until his death. He was allocated the largest share of the reward for the capture of the Kelly gang.

Origins

Francis Augustus Hare was born at the Cape of Good Hope, in a little village called Wynberg, from Capetown, on 4 October 1830, and was the youngest son of a family of sixteen or seventeen. His father, Joseph Hare (1772–1856), a captain in the 21st Dragoons, had settled in the Cape when the regiment was disbanded.

Hare received the congratulations both the Governor and the Chief Secretary for his work on the Kelly case. His obituary in the Argus noted, "While his discretion in connection with the pursuit of the Kelly gang was matter for comment, his personal courage was never once doubted." Hare had no children.

Depictions in popular culture He was played by Charles Webb in 1951 film The Glenrowan Affair.

He appears in the musical Ned Kelly: The Electric Music Show. On the musical's concept album, he is depicted as "Sergeant Hare", and voiced by the musical's librettist Reg Livermore. In the original stage production that performed at the Adelaide Festival Centre in 1977, he was played by Arthur Dignam. In the 2026 revival produced by Victorian Opera, he was played by Robert Grubb.

He was played by Anthony Hawkins in the 1980 miniseries The Last Outlaw.

He was played by Geoffrey Rush in the 2003 film Ned Kelly.

He appears in NED – A New Australian Musical. In the original production, staged at the Bendigo's Ulumbarra Theatre in 2015, he was played by Andrew Broadbent. The production staged at Sydney's New Theatre in 2018 he was played by Marcus Riviera.

Works Hare published his own autobiography, first as a series of articles in the Leader newspapers, then in book form: The Last of the Bushrangers: An Account of the Capture of the Kelly Gang (1892).