LONIGAN

CONSTABLE THOMAS LONIGAN

Thomas Lonigan (also spelled Lonergan in some newspaper accounts and
books) was born in 1844 in Sligo, Ireland. He arrived in Australia in
1867 and tried his hand at a couple of different professions before
becoming a mounted constable in 1871.

In 1877 Thomas Lonigan had a run in with Ned Kelly which left an
indelible impression on Ned. Ned Kelly was being escorted from the
Benalla lock up to the courthouse (charged with being drunk and
disorderly after riding his horse across a footpath) by an escort of
four, amongst them was Lonigan. Constable Fitzpatrick, who had
arrested him, and whom Ned thought had "hocussed his grog" the night
before, wanted to handcuff Ned, but he was having none of it and broke
away and ran. Ned ran into a bootmaker's shop where the four followed
and tried to subdue him with help from the bootmaker. It was quite a
battle, during which Lonigan grabbed Ned by his private parts and
applied pressure in an effort to subdue him. Ned was in great pain but
would not give in. Eventually, the local miller came in during the
battle and persuaded Ned to let he himself put on the handcuffs and
Ned agreed.

Later in 1878, Thomas Lonigan was part of the party of police under
Sgt. Michael Kennedy sent out to find Ned and Dan Kelly on October 25,
1878. He was invited along as he knew what the Kellys looked like.
According to reports, he returned home two times after setting off for
the rendezvous with the others in order to say goodbye to his wife. He
must have had some sort of premonition that things would not go well.
And they didn't.

On the morning of Saturday, October 26, 1878, Sgt. Kennedy and
Constable Scanlon had gone out on patrol, leaving Constable Lonigan
and Constable McIntyre in the camp near Stringybark Creek. At some
point McIntyre had fired at some parrots which had alerted Ned and Dan
who, unbeknownst to the police, were staying nearby in a fortified hut
with two others, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart. Ned and the others planned
to bail the police up and take their weapons and horses. They
approached the camp and found only Lonigan and McIntyre there. Ned
called to them to bail up, and McIntyre who was unarmed, threw up his
hands, but Lonigan, who was armed, ran and took cover behind a fallen
log and as he raised his head to fire was shot in the right eye and
killed instantly.

Before everything was over, the returning Kennedy and Scanlon were
shot and killed, McIntyre was fleeing for his life, and Joe Byrne was
wearing Scanlon and Lonigan's rings on his hand.

The body of Thomas Lonigan was recovered a few days later along with
the body of Scanlon, Kennedy's was found a bit later as he fell
further down the creek.

Lonigan was buried in the Mansfield Cemetery and his name was on the
Police Memorial at Mansfield unveiled in April 1880 that also honoured
the others slain at Stringybark Creek.

Thomas Lonigan, aged 37, left behind a wife and four children.

(Written by Sharon Hollingsworth)