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Francis Augustus Hare
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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.
After a Royal Commission into the Kelly affair, 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.
Francis Augustus Hare was born at the Cape of Good Hope, in a little village called Wynberg, eight miles (13 km) 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. His mother was Sally Wilberforce Bird (1793–1862). His early days were spent on the family farm at Wynberg, situated below the shadow of Table Mountain. He was among the first pupils at a school his father helped to set up, which remains one of South Africa's oldest schools still in existence, Wynberg Boys High.
After leaving high school he was for a time sheepfarming and with his brother, but the life was not congenial and he decided to go to Australia. He arrived in Melbourne on 10 April 1852, a few months after the gold discoveries. He paid a brief visit to Sydney, having a runaway convict from Norfolk Island as a mate, but returned at once to Melbourne, where there was much talk of gold and the diggings. Hare joined a party of visitors, and an eight days' tramp brought them to Bendigo, passing en route through the Black Forest, then a noted haunt of bushrangers. They pitched their tents at Golden Gully, and had a fair amount of luck as gold seekers. Alluring news came across from the Ovens and Hare and his party decided to go there, although on the day before he left Hare had himself washed out 10 ounces (280 grams) of gold in a little gully not far from their tents.
By Christmas Day, 1852, Hare was on celebrated Read's Creek "paddocking" for gold, and afterwards on Spring Creek, where his share of the proceeds of one claim was £800. He worked there for a time digging, or evading the digger's license in the same area he was to return as a lieutenant in the Mounted Police But a serious illness sent him to Sydney, with very little prospect of ever reaching it, and in his book, The Last of the Bushrangers, which contains the record of his life and adventures in Australia, Hare tells a story of his lying on top of a loaded dray beneath a gum-tree, with a crow perched just above him waiting for the end. The fear that his eyes would be torn out while he was yet alive seemed to give a stimulus, and from that point his illness turned and he recovered.
He afterwards went to the Waranga diggings with G. D. McCormick, who was born on the same day and year as Hare, and many years afterwards both were made police magistrates in the same year.
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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.
After a Royal Commission into the Kelly affair, 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.
Francis Augustus Hare was born at the Cape of Good Hope, in a little village called Wynberg, eight miles (13 km) 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. His mother was Sally Wilberforce Bird (1793–1862). His early days were spent on the family farm at Wynberg, situated below the shadow of Table Mountain. He was among the first pupils at a school his father helped to set up, which remains one of South Africa's oldest schools still in existence, Wynberg Boys High.
After leaving high school he was for a time sheepfarming and with his brother, but the life was not congenial and he decided to go to Australia. He arrived in Melbourne on 10 April 1852, a few months after the gold discoveries. He paid a brief visit to Sydney, having a runaway convict from Norfolk Island as a mate, but returned at once to Melbourne, where there was much talk of gold and the diggings. Hare joined a party of visitors, and an eight days' tramp brought them to Bendigo, passing en route through the Black Forest, then a noted haunt of bushrangers. They pitched their tents at Golden Gully, and had a fair amount of luck as gold seekers. Alluring news came across from the Ovens and Hare and his party decided to go there, although on the day before he left Hare had himself washed out 10 ounces (280 grams) of gold in a little gully not far from their tents.
By Christmas Day, 1852, Hare was on celebrated Read's Creek "paddocking" for gold, and afterwards on Spring Creek, where his share of the proceeds of one claim was £800. He worked there for a time digging, or evading the digger's license in the same area he was to return as a lieutenant in the Mounted Police But a serious illness sent him to Sydney, with very little prospect of ever reaching it, and in his book, The Last of the Bushrangers, which contains the record of his life and adventures in Australia, Hare tells a story of his lying on top of a loaded dray beneath a gum-tree, with a crow perched just above him waiting for the end. The fear that his eyes would be torn out while he was yet alive seemed to give a stimulus, and from that point his illness turned and he recovered.
He afterwards went to the Waranga diggings with G. D. McCormick, who was born on the same day and year as Hare, and many years afterwards both were made police magistrates in the same year.
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