David Thompson Seymour
Profile:
Earliest/Latest known date
1864 - 1895
Date of Birth:
05-Nov-1831
Date of death
31-Jan-1916
Place of birth
Ballymore, Cork, Ireland
Officer’s reason for departure
Retired
Marriage:
Caroline Matilda Brown, m.1864;
Sara Jane Stevenson, m.1888
Rank/Position:
Acting Commissioner: 1864-1864.
Commissioner: 1864-1895.
“Seymour was never afraid to use force. In the Brisbane riot of September 1866 he ordered his men to fix bayonets and load with live ammunition to disperse a large crowd in Queen Street. In the 1894 pastoral strike the police were given sole power to ‘preserve order and secure liberty to all alike’.”
Biography:
Educated at Ennis College, he entered the army as an ensign on 1 February 1856. On 13 January 1861 he arrived in Brisbane in command of the first detachment in Queensland after separation. He was appointed aide-de-camp and private secretary to the governor on 11 May 1861. On 1 January 1864 he retired from the army to become acting commissioner of police under the Police Act of 1863 and was confirmed in office in July. The force consisted of 150 white officers and 137 Native Mounted Police.Beginning with the establishment of a detective force in 1864, he soon expanded and improved the service. A select committee of 1869 supported his complaints against the appointment of police magistrates as officers and his recommendations, based on observations during extensive travel, for improved pay and conditions. The committee also approved his new-found opposition to phasing out the Native Mounted Police. He showed his faith in the native police in 1880 by sending black trackers to Victoria to participate in rounding up the Kelly gang. On 30 June 1895 Seymour retired on a pension of £700: he had increased police strength to 907 which still included 104 Native Mounted Police.
For full biography, see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/seymour-david-thompson-4562.