First commissioner of police the patriarch of three generations of O'Halloran family noted in South Australian law
The first three generations of the O'Halloran family: South Australia's first police commissioner Major Thomas Shuldham O’Halloran (top left), his son Thomas Joseph Shuldham (T.J.S.) O'Halloran (bottom left), a long-time magistrate; third-generation Thomas Shuldham O’Halloran, noted lawyer and King's Counsel, also long-time administrator of the South Australian National Football League, above right, presenting the Magarey Medal of Max Pontifex (West Torrens club) at Adelaide Oval in 1932. A fourth-generation family member, D. Bruce Ross, became a supreme court judge (1952-1963).
O’Halloran became an early well-known family name in the South Australian legal fraternity beyond its colonial pioneer, first police commissioner Major Thomas Shuldham O’Halloran, being centre of one of the most contentious incidents in its legal history.
Under orders from governor George Gawler in 1840, major O’Halloran as police commissioner had two Milmenrura Aboriginal men hanged, after a drumhead court martial, at the Coorong in front of 65 of their tribe after the killing of survivors of the brig Maria wreck. This angered colonial authorities in London as Aboriginal people in South Australia were considered protected by British law.
O’Halloran became a popular public figure and a member of the colony’s Legislative Council. He served on the founding committees for the Collegiate School of St Peter.
His eldest son, Thomas Joseph Shuldham (T.J.S.) O'Halloran, was one of St Peter’s college's earliest students. T.J.S. O'Halloran worked at South Australia’s treasury office from 1853 then joined the National Bank, in 1871 becoming manager of Strathalbyn branch.
In 1874, he was appointed stipendiary magistrate, succeeding B.T. Laurie at Mount Gambier, G.W. Hawkes at Gawler, John Varley at Kapunda, McCulloch at Port Pirie. Mount Gambier (1878), Mount Barker and Port Elliott (1885) were other appointments. In 1887, T.J.S. O'Halloran he was transferred to Wallaroo with a jurisdiction from southern Yorke Peninsula, Port Lincoln, Fowler’s Bay and west to Renmark (where he settled a strike by arbitration) and Morgan. During his last 10 years at Wallaroo, he travelled about 14,000 miles a year.
During World War I, T.J.S. O'Halloran was active in the Cheer Up Hut serving meals to soldiers. (Also involved was Herbert Whitney Waterhouse whose daughter married Margaret married T.J.S. O’Halloran’s nephew D. Bruce Ross, who served in World War I, and later a South Australian supreme court judge.)
While on the bench in Mount Barker, T. J.S. O'Halloran was a vice-president of the town's Australian rules football club and he was possibly the captain of the Old Adelaide Football Club in its earliest days. T.J.S. O'Halloran’s son, Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran, born at the family farm on O’Halloran Hill in Adelaide’s south, in 1865, became a noted lawyer and an Australian rules football administrator.
Also educated at St Peter’s College, Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran read his law articles with Louis von Doussa at Mount Barker. Admitted to the bar in 1887, he partnered O. Mostyn Evan before joining Gordon, Nesbit & Bright, and started his own law office in 1896. In 1921, he took in his nephew D. Bruce Ross as partner and was made King’s Counsel in 1924. He was solicitor for the Municipal Tramways Trust from its start, and he drafted the Industrial Code and the Early Closing Act statutes. He was president of the law society in 1926.
Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran's prominence in sports included playing for South Australian team against the All-England XI in 1882. He belonged to Adelaide Gun Club and Adelaide Oval Bowling Club and, for 14 years, was president and chairman of the South Australian National Football League and a life member of the Australian Football Council.
His nephew D. Bruce Ross, son of his sister Annie, who raised him as a widow in the home of her father T.J.S. O’Halloran at 177 Childers Street, North Adelaide, attended Queen’s School and St Peter’s College and was admitted to the bar in 1914. During World War I, he served in France and Belgium as a gunner with the 13th Field Artillery Brigade, 113 Howitzer Battery, later 51 Artillery Battery and 50 Battery.
In 1921, he joined his uncle as O'Halloran & Ross law firm. He was a president of the council of the law society 1947–49. During World War II, Ross served as a military legal officer with the rank of captain. He was appointed King's Council in 1945 and became a supreme court judge 1952-1963.