Thomas O'Halloran

Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran (25 October 1797 – 16 August 1870) was the first Police Commissioner and first Police Magistrate of South Australia.

Early life and education O'Halloran was born in Berhampore on 25 October 1797 (now Baharampur) India, the second of eight sons of Major-General Sir Joseph O'Halloran, by his wife, Frances, daughter of Colonel Nicholas Bayly, M.P., and niece of Henry, 1st Earl of Uxbridge. Upon his retirement he was appointed as a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, retaining the position until February 1851. In March 1857 he was elected as a member of the Legislative Council and served until his resignation in June 1863.

Maria controversy Major O'Halloran's expedition to the Coorong, August 1840. Painting by unknown artist, held at the Art Gallery of South Australia. In June 1840, the brig Maria set sail from Port Adelaide towards Hobart. By July 1840, stories and rumours had circulated that all 26 people on board had survived a shipwreck, but had been killed by members of the Milmenrura, a clan of the Tanganekald people, along the Coorong. After a police investigation, which discovered several mutilated bodies and determined who the murderers were believed to be, Governor Gawler ordered O'Halloran (as police commissioner) and Police Inspector Alexander Tolmer to lead a party of police and sailors to the area. His orders were to find and execute those responsible.

On 22 August 1840, after several days of interviews, investigations and a drumhead court-martial, two Milmenrura men were publicly hanged on the Coorong in front of 65 people from their tribe. O'Halloran then told the people (through an interpreter) that their bodies were not to be taken down and that this was to be a warning against violence towards Europeans by Aboriginal people.

This was one of the most contentious incidents in South Australian legal history. At the time, Aboriginals in South Australia were considered British subjects, and therefore deemed to be under the protection of British law. Gawler's ordering of a drumhead court-martial and the executions was not well received by the London authorities and contributed to his removal as governor.

At that same time O'Halloran's younger brother, Captain (later Major General) Henry Dunn O'Halloran (1800–71), 69th Regt., posted at New Brunswick, Canada, was conducting a significant study of the language and customs of the indigenous Mi'kmaq people.

Character Although O'Halloran attracted a reputation for belligerence, one of his mounted troopers of the 1840s related that, "Old Major O'Halloran used to say 'I never hated a man longer than a day'".

Death O'Halloran died on 16 August 1870

Descendants

O'Halloran married Anne Goss (died 1823) on 1 August 1821; they had two daughters, including: Anne Helen Lucy O'Halloran (19 May 1822 – 26 March 1898) married Francis Algernon Disney Roebuck Alice Mary Disney-Roebuck (died 5 May 1869) married Cmdr John Brabazon Vivian RN (1836 – 21 February 1874) of HMS Achilles Francis Henry Algernon Disney-Roebuck (7 October 1846 – 9 January 1919), English cricketer and army officer. He married again, on 10 July 1834, to Jane Waring; they had three sons and one daughter, among them: Eldest son Thomas Joseph Shuldham O'Halloran SM (27 April 1835 – 9 January 1922), married Harriet Julia Woodforde, daughter of the Adelaide Coroner. Their son Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran KC (23 February 1865 – 7 June 1945) was a lawyer and football administrator in South Australia. Eliza O'Halloran married farmer and flour miller Samuel White in 1853.