Bracken More

Hugh Bracken. The Glenrowan policeman.

     The following excerpts on the life of policeman Hugh Bracken are from 
the book ‘The Brackens’ by Bill Coffey. (italics mine)

Kelly mentioned that he had no intention of killing Bracken. He said, ‘There’s a man I 
wouldn’t have the heart to shoot’. Bracken had encountered Ned Kelly when Kelly was 
in Beechworth prison and when Kelly was released he had visited the Kelly home – he 
was that type of person – and chatted with the family in the hope that they would alter 
their way of living and become law-abiding citizens.

Dan was not so sure about Bracken and tried unsuccessfully to get Ned to restrain 
him with handcuffs.

The noise of the engine whistle alerted the Kelly Gang to the fact that the train was approaching. 
They went in to the room they had set apart for donning their iron armour and put it on. In their 
haste they left the key of the front door on the bar counter where Constable Bracken saw it and 
backing up to it he slipped it into his Wellington boot. Unnoticed by the crowd, he sidled round 
to the front door, unlocked it and escaped.

Bracken himself stated that he slipped the key into the hem of his trousers earlier.

When Joe Byrne found that Bracken was not to be seen……….he said ‘Let me but catch him 
and I’ll make bracken of him’.

Under the circumstances I think it was most fortunate that he did in fact escape.

…………’It’s Ned Kelly’. Sergeant Steele who had been searching for Kelly for two years 
shouted, ‘I swore I’d be at your death’ and raised his gun to shoot the wounded Kelly but 
Constable Bracken brushed him aside and said, ‘If you shoot Kelly I’ll shoot you’ and 
Ned Kelly survived the onslaught.

When people are attacking the police at Glenrowan, facts such as the one above 
should be remembered. Bracken was Ned’s saviour.

After the Glenrowan affray Hugh Bracken was posted to the Richmond Police depot on 
9 July ‘at his own request’.

At the depot in Richmond, Bracken found that many of the police there and those doing 
duty in Melbourne were aggrieved at his presence in their midst.

On 9 September 1880 Hugh Bracken was drafted from the depot to take charge of the police 
station at Wallan Wallan.

It is interesting to find that he went to Wallan Wallan when you look at the Quinn connection 
with the town and the fact that it is a possibility Ned was born here. Present day Wallan 
(as it is now known) has a pub that proudly promotes Ned. I wonder if they realise 
they had yet another important figure once in their midst?

When the awards granted to those who were engaged in the hunt for the Kelly Gang were 
published in July 1881 and he was seen to have received the fifth largest monetary reward, 
envy was more apparent.

Hugh Bracken had to be convinced to put in for a share of the reward, originally he 
did not seek any. Once he did put in for the reward, he requested the entire Victorian 
share of four thousand pounds. Also it is an interesting fact to note that he joined the 
police at his own expense for six months in order to capture the Kelly gang after the 
'outrages’ at Stringybark Creek.

This rankled in the mind of Hugh Bracken so much that he had a nervous breakdown. 
On 7 April 1883 he was transferred from Wallan Wallan to the police depot in Melbourne 
‘on account of illness’. On 9^th of May he was found unfit for service and discharged.

Hugh Bracken, police pensioner, aged 60 died on 22 February 1900 at Wallan Wallan…
……from gunshot wounds, self inflicted.

I am sure that this fact is not well known amongst Australians. What a sad waste 
of an important life.

His son, Richard, was killed in action at Le Verguder, France, on 19 September 1918, 
less than a month before the end on 11 November 1918 of World War 1.

Yet another waste of life, as was true of all of our young Australians lost in war. 
Ironic that he was killed so close to 11 November. 
This man was not the 'little boy' who was left with his mother when Ned bailed up
Constable Bracken in Glenrowan.  Richard was at Glenrowan, his half-brother
James was not yet born. James was killed near the end of WW1.

The Australian War Memorials document on Hugh's son James.