Chief Constable Charles FOX
Chief Constable Charles FOX
New South Wales Police Force
Illness – Suicide
Muswellbrook
25 August, 1856
Charles Fox was Chief Constable of Muswellbrook when he took his own life on Monday 25 August, 1856. The following paragraph appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of 29 August, 1856.
On Monday, the 25th, an enquiry was held at the courthouse, Muswellbrook, before the coroner, Mr J.B.West, and a jury of twelve, touching on the death of Mr Charles Fox, chief constable, who, on the same morning, had committed suicide, by shooting himself with a pistol. It appeared on evidence that the deceased was latterly under medical treatment for general debility and depression of the mental faculties and had been for some time past labouring under hypochondria. It seemed on a view of the body, which presented a shocking spectacle that he had placed the muzzle of the weapon in his mouth, which dreadfully shattered… A finding of ‘Destroyed himself while labouring under temporary insanity’ was accordingly made. The deceased was much respected as a steady inoffensive man, and has left a widow and one son.
At the time of his death the chief constable was stationed at Muswellbrook.
