Eric George BAILEY GC

Eric George BAILEY GC

Arrested his own Murderer

Father to John ‘Jack’ George BAILEY – NSWPF # 6293

Grandfather to Stephen Colin MARTIN, NSWPF # 24821

New South Wales Police Force

NSW Redfern Police Academy Class # ???

( Class # 001 was in March 1947 – so Eric pre dates that. )

Regd. # 2382

 

Rank: Commenced Training on ? ? ?

Probationary Constable – appointed Wednesday 16 March 1927

Constable 1st Class – appointed 23 April 1938

Constable 1st Class – posthumously promoted to Sergeant 3rd Class

 

Stations: No. 4 Division from 14 June 1927,

The Rocks in 1928, then Gundagai, Narrandera & other rural stations.

Moruya 1938 then Blayney from 4 January 1945

 

Service:  From 16 March 1927 to 12 January 1945 = 18 years Service

 

Awards:  * George Cross  ( GC ) awarded, Granted 20 October 1946 – posthumously

also the George Lewis Trophy.

Bravery Commendation re arrest at Batemans Bay in 1940.

Highly Commended and awarded six months seniority for Conspicuous Bravery for the rescue of survivors, at sea, off Moruya on the 3 August 1942, after a fishing trawler had been attacked by a Japanese submarine.  Also received a Certificate of Merit from Royal Shipwreck Relief and Humane Society of NSW.

 

Born:  Sunday  14 October 1906 at Tenterfield

Died:  Friday  12 January 1945

Age:  38 years, 2 months, 29 days old

Cause:  Shot – Murdered

Event location:  Outside of Exchange Hotel, Adelaide St, Blayney

 

Funeral date:  Monday  15 January 1945

Funeral location:  Buried in Rookwood Cemetery

 

Grave location:  Anglican Section, Rookwood Cemetery.  Zone C, Section 08, Grave 1959

GPS:  -33.87119050511541,  151.05958014008522

Grave:  [codepeople-post-map]

 

ERIC IS mentioned on the Police Wall of Remembrance

 

Memorial location:  Below plaque is located at the location of the murder.

On 4 January 1945, Constable 1st Class Bailey commenced duty at Blayney Police Station.  On his 8th day at that station, he was dead.

On a hot summer evening, eight days later, while on duty in Adelaide Street, he was informed that a drinker at the Exchange Hotel was displaying a revolver.

Shortly after 8pm on 12 January 1945, Constable 1st Class Bailey spoke to a man, Cyril Norman, who was dressed in an American Naval Uniform outside the Exchange Hotel, Blayney. The constable told the man that he intended to search him and his belongings regarding his alleged possession of a revolver. The man suddenly produced the revolver and shot Constable Bailey in the stomach. The constable then took hold of the offender and during the ensuing struggle two more shots were fired and the offender was wounded in the wrist. Three railway employees quickly came to the constable’s aid and the offender was handcuffed and detained until the arrival of Constable Grady.  Bailey told Grady: ” He shot me through the back.  Don’t let him get away …I had a go.  I didn’t squib it “.

The wound suffered by Constable Bailey proved to be severe and he died on admission to the Orange Base Hospital with his wife by his side. He had in fact arrested his own murderer.

 

Allegations were later made suggesting that the offender was a contract killer sent to murder another local policeman, Constable Stan Grady, who had been enthusiastically investigating sly grog sellers and SP bookies in the area. The offender was said to have inadvertently shot Constable Bailey, whom he mistook for Grady, who was off duty at the time. When shot, Constable Bailey was in mounted police uniform, and until that day Stan Grady had been the only mounted constable in Blayney, thus the offender’s error. The offender, well-known Sydney criminal Cyril Norman – alias Thomas Couldrey – was convicted and sentenced to death.

Norman was charged with the murder of Bailey and that of Maurice Hannigan, a Sydney shopkeeper from whom he had stolen guns and ammunition. Although he was convicted, the death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

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Bailey was posthumously awarded the George Cross, instituted in 1940 by King George VI and intended primarily for civilians, which recognized ‘acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger’.

The first Australian policeman to be so honoured, he was also posthumously promoted sergeant 3rd class and awarded the George Lewis trophy in 1945 for the most courageous act by a policeman.

Bailey was accorded an official police funeral in Sydney and was buried in the Anglican section of Rookwood cemetery. His daughter and son John, who was to join the New South Wales police at the age of 16, also survived him.

( John ‘Jack’ George BAILEY, NSW Police Cadet # 0613, Regd. # 6293 )

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28 May 2020

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1087842541279097/

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The Sydney Morning Herald of 11 September, 1947

announced the presentation of Sergeant Bailey’s George Cross by Sir William McKell.

 

GEORGE CROSS AWARD – INVESTITURE BY MR. McKELL.

Mrs. F. M. Bailey, of Cleveland Street, Moore Park, widow of Police Sgt. Eric G. Bailey, yesterday received the George Cross awarded to her husband for holding a man who had fatally wounded him until assistance arrived, at Blayney in January, 1945. The decoration was made at an investiture held by the Governor General, Mr. McKell, at Government House.

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Sergeant Bailey was born in 1906 and joined the New South Wales Police Force in 1927. At the time of his death he was stationed at Blayney. He was posthumously promoted to Sergeant 3rd Class ( Although his grave states Sgt 2/c ) and awarded the George Cross and the George Lewis Trophy.

* Eric BAILEY is the ONLY Australian Police Officer to be awarded the Imperial Honour, namely the George Cross Medal.

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