Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Peter Conole, Police Historian, Western Australia Police

OUR MAN IN RUSSIA - ALMOST

Readers of the July-August 2003 edition of Newsbeat will have come across the story of Gerald Uniacke, a former WA mounted trooper who went on to enjoy a spectacular military career. One of his comrades-in-arms in South Africa was former Constable Jarlath Stephen Duffy, whose career after policing was, if anything, even more florid. Duffy is on the left in the attached photograph. He also served in the 2nd WA Mounted Infantry; the man seated could possibly be Uniacke.

Duffy was born in New South Wales in 1869. He came to WA in 1892, joined the Police Force on 1 December, 1893 and was immediately sent to Coolgardie as a mounted constable.  The Gold Rush was then picking up steam. Heavy drinking, disorderly behaviour and theft were common and living conditions were atrocious. Many prospectors could not cope and suicide was not uncommon - Duffy found the body of one man who had shot himself in February 1894 and helped with the inquest. The five police officers at Coolgardie were constantly on patrol. On one occasion, Duffy and two trackers went out to find a government surveyor who was missing in desert country. They found him 40 miles out of town: a last minute rescue, for the man was close to death from thirst and heat exhaustion.

Duffy resigned on 12 April 1894 and went into business, only to be wiped out in a stock market crash. When the Boer War broke out, Duffy joined up as a corporal, served with great distinction and was eventually commissioned in the field as a lieutenant. He returned to Australia in 1901 and was sent to Melbourne to attend the opening of our Federal Parliament. Lieutenant Duffy must have caught the eye of more than one senior man. In June 1902 he went back to South Africa as an officer with another WA unit and was made assistant press censor by the British Commander in Chief, Lord Kitchener. He came home to WA in December 1902 with two medals and seven bars for various campaigns and battles.

The future held far stranger things for Duffy. He was re-commissioned into the Australian Regular Army as an officer in the Intelligence Corps in 1909 and in March 1915 became a captain in the supply section of the 6th Infantry Brigade. There are no prizes for guessing his next destination. In September he was sent to Gallipoli - in the Intelligence Corps again - and served there until the final evacuation. Duffy was on active service in Egypt in early 1916, then returned to WA as a staff officer.

It is a safe bet that intelligence work occupied his time, for the last of Duffy's remarkable military twists and turns is the most surprising. In 1917 Duffy was appointed Australian Ambassador to Imperial Russia, which at that time was in serious trouble because of the war and close to imploding. Duffy never got to make the trip to St Petersburg - the Russian Revolution broke out and he spent the rest of the war in Perth. On 1 January 1919 Duffy was made an honorary major and transferred to the reserve list. To add to the glory, another five decorations came his way and set the seal on an unusual career.

Duffy had established a real estate firm before the Great War and went back to managing it in civilian life. He died in 1949 at the grand old age of 80.

Peter Conole
Police Historian
Western Australia Police

(This article was published in Newsbeat, Issue 23, March/April 2004 and is reproduced here courtesy the Western Australia Police)

AWM summary:

Capt Duffy was a 45 year old auctioneer from Perth with previous service in the 2nd West Australian Mounted Infantry in the Boer War from 1900 to 1902 when he joined the AIF on 18 March 1915. He embarked for overseas with the 6th Infantry Brigade Train, 16th Company ASC from Melbourne on 22 May 1915 aboard HMAT Afric (A19). After serving at Gallipoli, he was taken ill on returning to Egypt and evacuated to Australia. Capt Duffy’s appointment was terminated on 1 June 1916 as he was unfit for further service overseas.