Page 7 - eMuse Vol.9 No.09

There is a belief among some historians that Mary Anne Bugg
assisted in many Fred’s activities by reconnaissance. Perhaps this
has an element of truth. There is also the belief that Mary Ann
and her indigenous relatives taught Fred bushcraft skills which
helped him in survival techniques and avoiding the law. She prob-
ably taught him to read and write as well. Because police were
not looking for her she was able to come and go freely in any town
where she could easily buy provisions for Fred and his gang.
However nothing prevented their relationship from ending in
late 1867. It is probable Fred was unaware of the birth of his son,
Frederick Wordsworth Ward in August 1868.
The junior Fred Ward adopted the surname of his stepfather,
John Burrows. Like his birth father before him the young Fred
showed a talent for grooming and horse-training. He did not fol-
low him as a bushranger. He died unmarried in 1937.
Thunderbolt’s career came to an end in 1870 at Thunderbolt’s
Rock near the site of his attempt to rob the mail some years ear-
lier. In the time since his first attempt, the Royal Oak Inn was built
nearby .
The widely accepted version of Captain Thunderbolt’s death on
May 25, 1870 states, after robbing travellers (and ‘impaired by al-
cohol’ after a session at the Royal Oak Inn) he was recognised by an
off-duty policeman, Constable Alexander Binney Walker.
In the pursuit of his attempted escape Walker shot and killed
Thuderbolt at in a swamp at Kentucky Creek.
Conspiracy theories by the score contest this version and make a
variety of claims that Walker actually shot someone else — one of
Thunderbolt’s relatives for instance. Among these claims it is said
he escaped to Canada and retired.
It’s good to end a story with an unsolved or unsolvable mystery
Fred Ward aka Capt Thunderbolt. but in this case the evidence has been thoughly examined and re-
examined many times. Odds are the official version is closest to
the truth .
with Mary Ann Bugg. By taking her back to her father’s farm, Fred We Australians love our bushranger stories and Thunderbolt
was late in meeting a muster which was a condition of his ticket of was one of that breed who captivated our imagination from the
leave . Further compounding his troubles, he returned on a stolen start. Even before the official inquest, hundreds flocked to see the
horse .
He was promptly returned to Cockatoo Island to serve the re- body of Captain Thunderbolt after his death and for a shilling, you
maining six years of his sentance plus three more for good meas- could buy a postcard of his bullet-ridden body.
Tom Roberts’ 1895 painting “In a corner on the Macintyre” de-
ure. Fred escaped with Frederick Britten by swimming back to the picts Captain Thunderbolt in a shootout with police (see previous
mainland . Legend has it that Mary Ann assisted him in this but that page) .
is not correct .
The escapees headed for the New England district. They robbed In 1905 the melodrama “Thunderbolt” was played at the Thea-
a sheppard’s hut near Uralla and a few days later attempted to rob tre Royal in Sydney. The part of Thunderbolt was played by Lau-
rence Dunbar .
the mail coach at Big Rock near Uralla (now known as Thunder- John Gavin played him in the 1910 silent film Thunderbolt. And
bolt’s Rock). in 1955 Grant Taylor played the title role in “Captain Thunderbolt”.
In the gunfight with the groom and later with the police escort,
Fred was wounded behind the left knee. (It left a scar by which his
body was later positively identified.) Some weeks later the pair
parted company .
On the 21st December 1863, Fred robbed the Rutherford tollbar
house. When he entered he startled the customs officer from his
sleep by banging loudly on the door. The startled officer, Delaney, is
purported to remark, “By God, I thought it must have been a thun-
derbolt”. The myth persists, that from this incident Fred named
himself Captain Thunderbolt.
Over the following six-and-a-half years, Ward robbed mailmen,
travellers, inns, stores and stations across much of northern New
South Wales - from the Hunter Region north to Queensland and
from Tamworth nearly as far west as Bourke.
He formed a gang around 1865 which went on a crime spree
until John Thompson was shot and captured at Millie, near Moree.
That gang disbanded and later in the year Fred joined the company
of two felons in another band.
This gang too was disbanded when Jemmy the Whisperer shot Wood engraving “Death of Captain Thunderbolt”
a policeman . Samuel Calvert, June 1870. State Library of Victoria.

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