My Grand Father

[magpie]

In the pic my grand dad is in the middle, his name was Harold Pannel, he joined the South Australian Police as a Cadet in 1938, he served in various roles including CIB , he was stationed at Karoonda, in 1957 working as a Bailif appointed officer he had to go to a farm at Bow Hill to sieze property to offset a debt owed by the farmer for a motor accident, he had been to the farm several times before and had stated he thought the farmer was a bit simple, so he turned up at the farm with a truck and driver they began loading rolls off wire, the farmer came out and pop was trying to make the farmer understand why they had to take the wire, the farmer returned to his house and returned with a shot gun, pop asked why he needed the rifle he said he was going to shoot a rabbit, he then pointed the rifle at pops head and fired, pop was killed instantly the farmer told the driver to piss off, he drove to Murray Bridge and raised the alarm, when the Police arrived at the farm the farmer had no idea why they were there, pops body was found under a pile of corrugated tin, the farmer named Fisher was arrested and charged with murder, he got off on the old diminished responsibility ploy he served 7 years in an asylum, my nan is 96 and to this day never remarried she remains faithfull to her husband, both her and my mother still will not talk about pop, he was the first Policeman murdered on duty in SA history, I have  some old uniform buttons of his and that is all.

[Nick]

Thanks for sharing this personal story with us. 

[Brett Hendey]

A very sad story!   Even if a policeman is prepared for trouble, it is still a dangerous job even in 'safe' countries like Australia.  In South Africa, a dangerous country where the police are always armed and expecting trouble, over 50 policemen and women have been murdered so far this year.

Regards

Brett