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Police Deaths in NSW – 1788 to 1996 (24)

In Remembrance of those Police Officers who gave their life

LAWSON, Bev
Deputy Commissioner
22 January, 1998.

Bev Lawson suffered from a stroke in her Tarrawanna (Wollongong) home on 21 January 1998 as she prepared to attend the funeral of a retired Police woman, Ruth Styles, at a country centre.
Ruth Styles was an Inspector having previously been stationed at Warilla NSW.
Bev Lawson was transported to Wollongong Hospital and died at 10.20am on the 22 January, 1998 in Intensive Care.
Her funeral was held at Figtree on the 28 January, 1998.

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Robert Brotherson

BROTHERSON, Robert
Student Police Officer
1 February, 2002

Student Police Officer Robert Brotherson was a passenger in a police car responding to a persons trapped motor vehicle (MVA). The collision occurred upon the F6, Dapto, Expressway on Thursday 24 January, 2002 at about 7.20pm, when the vehicle he was travelling in slid across the road and hit an on coming truck.
Student Police Officer Brotherson was critically injured in the rear of the car while two other officers survived with serious injuries. Robert survived for eight days, on life support at Wollongong Intensive Care Unit until 12.00pm on Friday 1st February when life support was turned off. He is survived by his wife Melissa and sons Blake and Ewen.
Student Police Officer Brotherson was aged 29 years and was buried with full police honours.
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SMITH, Ann Kylie
Constable.
3 February, 2003

Constable Kylie Smith, of Richmond Local Area Command in Lismore, is the only Police Officer to die on duty in 2003. Kylie died in a car accident as she travelled to work on February 3, 2003. The 28 year old mother of one joined the NSW Police in 1994 and worked in the Richmond Command.

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RATTY, Benjamin
Constable.
7th October, 1826
Benjamin Ratty – with his fellow Constables was trying to catch bushrangers robbing travellers at night near the Toll Bar on the Western Road Parramatta, (about where O’Connell Street now joins the Highway).

He was shot by his fellow constables while he was playing the part of an old drunk going home to lure out the bushrangers who were attacking people.
A Community collection was made for the tombstone with elaborate carving, the collection also paid for funeral clothing for his widow, Ann Ratty (nee Arnold) who Benjamin married at St John’s in 1821. Mrs Ann Ratty remarried in 1827, to Edward Smith, this being normal as there were no other such social support system in those days.
Benjamin Ratty is buried in St. John’s Church Parramatta, the grave is located about 15 metres north east of the south west corner.

The Inscription reads:
To the Memory of Benjamin Ratty who departed this life 7th Oct 1826. Aged 30 years. The deceased was a Constable in the Town of Parramatta during seven years and this stone was erected by its inhabitants as a mark of their esteem for his services on various occasions in apprehending Bushrangers & particularly for his intrepid behaviour which will be remembered in the night of the 23rd of September when he received the wound which caused his death from a pistol shot & and which conduct led to the immediate apprehension of a Part of the Banditti.

The Burial Register: Benjamin Ratty, 68. Parramatta. 9-10-1826. 28yrs. Shot by bushrangers. Free. Constable. Sammuel Marsden.

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