Constable
David Edward McGRATH
YEAR OF DEATH
1915
JURISDICTION
Victoria
DETAILS OF DEATH
In the early hours of Tuesday 1 October 1915 Constable McGrath and other police went to the Trades Hall in Lygon Street Carlton in answer to a report that a burglary was in progress. The policemen entered the building and found that an attempt had been made to open a safe. McGrath then confronted two offenders in a passage-way one of whom fired a number of shots which fatally wounded the Constable. The offender John Jackson was later arrested at the scene after further shots had been fired. Jackson was convicted of McGrath’s murder and was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol. He was the last person in Victoria to be executed for the murder of a policeman.
