The Last Person to be Shot by Ned Kelly
That’s me! … Yes it’s true … And I live to tell the tale.
This is the first in my series of “Me and …” stories … true stories from my life. №1: ‘Me and Ned Kelly’.
I was the very last person to be shot by Ned Kelly. “Who is Ned Kelly?”, I hear you say. Of course, if you are Australian or an Australian History Buff, you’ll already know.
Ned Kelly (1854–1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police murderer. He is known for wearing bulletproof headgear during his final shootout with the police. Australians view him as cult hero, though not quite in the mold of a ‘Robin Hood’, more ‘Likeable Villain’!
My main story today is not about Ned Kelly himself, but how I ended up being ‘The Last person Shot by Ned Kelly’. You can find a history of Ned and The Kelly Gang in Wikipedia (link in Navigation Panel at end). The following pictures give you a taster of that history (all image credits: wikipedia):
So, if Ned was a 19th Century bushranger in Australia, how is it that I claim to be the last person shot by Ned Kelly? And don’t forget that this is a true story! Believe me. It’s true.
Here’s the explanation. My main story today:
‘Me and Ned Kelly’
I arrived in Australia (where I now live), in 1989, coming from England by airplane unlike Ned’s father who had arrived in Australia in the early 1800s by ship, with other ‘transported’ convicts!
Now, consider the dates … It is surely impossible for me to have been shot by the bushranger Ned Kelly. But if it is true, and I do insist that I was the last person to be shot by Ned Kelly, then there has to be another ‘angle’ to this story, another explanation. There is, and here it is:
Take a look at the following photo of me, full-facial, on the first page of a 2005 Australian Newspaper’s Weekend Lift-out. It’s a bit distorted because the actual newspaper page became somewhat crumpled in my attempt to laminate it. The laminator mal-functioned and it came out a real mess!
So, my wife tried to iron it flat, knowing that I wanted to use it in my Ned Kelly story. I think she’s done a very good job.
You can still see the crease-marks, but in essence, it is ‘all there’:
Now, for the details: The essential details that will explain what the newspaper picture is all about, and what it has to do with me being shot by Ned Kelly:
Back in the early 2000s I lived in Townsville, North Queensland and for a time, whilst taking a rest from my academic pursuits, I was involved in real estate. But I have always been a storyteller and an occasional preacher. In this context, as a preacher-story-teller, I came to the attention of a journalist at The Townsville Bulletin.
He was planning to write a story about sermon-writing, researching how different people got their inspirational quotes etc to embellish their sermons. He asked me how I ‘did-it’.
I told him about my box of collected notes and quotes. You can see some of the box-contents in the picture above.
When the journalist had got enough data for his article, he made the decision to feature me on the front page of The Townsville Bulletin’s Weekend lift-out section. He didn’t tell me in advance, but he did ask if one of the paper’s photographers could visit my home to take some photos.
The photographer arrived at our house, and introduced himself as ‘The Townsville Bulletin’s Chief Photographer’. His name was well-known around Townsville and had been, for years and years. I’d never seen him before, but when he told me his name, I just ‘knew him’!
What was his name? The above picture holds the clue. But did you spot it? Take a closer look … it’s not easy to find.
So, here’s a little help … The following pic is a slightly enlarged image of the bottom right-hand corner of that face-photo:
Yes, the photographer’s name was … NED KELLY!
But there’s a little bit more to this story: Before leaving our house on the day of the photo-shoot, Ned told me that this was his last day at work; he was retiring. He was to take no more photos for The Townsville Bulletin.
And so it was that I became … ‘The Last Person to be Shot by Ned Kelly’!
So, the story was true after all!
A couple of reviews:
“Great twist! You had me going there”: Tree Langdon
“Caught me napping, Fred! Good story!”: Maria Rattray
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“Me” Story №1: The Last Person to be Shot” written by Fred: writer on Medium * * * * * © Fred Ogden 2021 * * * * *
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