William Parry-Okeden

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Commissioner

William Parry-Okeden

ISO
StateLibQld 1 115804 William Parry-Okeden dressed in his military uniform, ca. 1870.jpg
William Parry-Okeden dressed in his military uniform, ca. 1870
Queensland Under-Colonial Secretary
In office
July 1889 (1889-07) – 30 June 1895 (1895-06-30)
Commissioner of the Queensland Police
In office
1 July 1895 (1895-07-01) – 1 April 1905 (1905-04-01)
Preceded byDavid Thompson Seymour
Succeeded byWilliam Geoffrey Cahill
Personal details
Born(1841-05-13)13 May 1841
Snowy River, New South Wales, Australia
Died30 August 1926(1926-08-30) (aged 85)
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeBalmoral Cemetery, Brisbane
OccupationPolice officer

William Edward Parry-Okeden ISO (13 May 1841 – 30 August 1926) was a public servant, Police Commissioner and Protector of Aborigines (1895-1903), as well as a horseman, in Queensland, Australia. He stood 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall.

Early life[]

William Edward Parry-Okeden was born on 13 May 1841, the son of David Parry-Okeden (c.1810–9 August 1895), a Royal Navy officer who had served during the Battle of Navarino, and Rosalie Caroline Dutton. The family had descended from the Okedens of Dorset, Endland, and the Parrys from Wales.[1]

He was born at Maranumbela, his father's station, Snowy River, in the Monaro District of New South Wales. Education commenced at the Diocesan Grammar School.[2] By the age of 14 he had already participated as a volunteer police officer in the Ballarat riots.[3] Having served three years as an articled clerk to a solicitor in Melbourne, he relinquished the law and joined his father in squatting pursuits in Queensland in 1861, including managing the Burrandownan Station, the largest property in the Burnett district. With Richard W. Stuart, he explored the upper waters of the Dawson River, aged 22 in 1862.[1]

Public service career[]

Nine years later he was appointed to initiate the Border Customs, and entered the Civil Service as Inspector of the Border Patrol in December 1870.[4] Having been employed as a police magistrate from 1872 to 1886, including far south-west Queensland including Cunnamulla and Charleville,[5][2] Parry-Okeden acted for the next three years as immigration agent at Brisbane, receiving the appointment of Under-Colonial Secretary in July 1889. In 1887 he acted with Kinnaird Rose on an inquiry into gaol management in Queensland.[4]

In response to the 1892 small pox epidemic, as Under-Colonial Secretary, Parry-Okeden organised health services, opened infection camps, and quarantine services.[3] He was then involved with maintaining law and order of the maritime and 1894 shearer's strikes on the 1890s.[2]

He served as police commissioner from 1 July 1895[6] to 1 April 1905. As Commissioner he oversaw the 'Gatton tragedy' in 1896 and the 'Kenniff affair' of 1902.[1]

Parry-Okeden received an Imperial Service Order in June 1903.[7] Parry-Okeden retired from the public service in 1905, aged 65.[8]

With the royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of York, Parry-Okeden was the governments' Australasian coordinator.[2]

He later became the chair of a Royal Commission into the conditions of Papua, whose recommendations were adopted.[5][2]

Other interests[]

In 1868, Parry-Okden's horse Hermit won the first Queensland Derby run at Gayndah Racecourse.[9]

Personal life[]

William Parry-Okeden married (E)lizabeth Gertrude Wall in October 1873. She came from a West Indian family of planters in Barbadoes and Trinidad.[5] Her great grandfather was a member of the Legislative Council of Barbadoes, when his great grandfather was governor of that colony.

With his wife, they had three surviving sons and four surviving daughters:[10]

  • Captain Uvedale Edward Parry-Okeden MC (1874–1961), serving at Gallipoli, later of Wells Station, Mundubbera, Queensland. He married Auburn Jessie May Hayes (–1964) in 1922;
  • Charles Fitzmaurice Parry-Okeden (1878–1974), later of 'Glen Haughton', Taroom, Queensland
  • Captain (H)erbert David Parry-Okeden (1889–), formerly of the Royal Flying Corps then Australian Flying Corps, later of 'Bungilburra', Chinchilla, Queensland;
  • Hilda Beatrice Parry-Okeden (1880–), who later married Dr (H)ubert Roger Cope, settling in Goulburn, New South Wales;
  • Rosalie Gertrude Parry-Okeden (1875–1950), in 1902 marrying Harry Richardson Pockley, 'Redlands', Corinda, Queensland;
  • Evelyn Constance Parry-Okeden (–1980). On 17 February 1912 she married a distant cousin, Edmund Robert Parry-Okeden, in St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney,[11] before moving to England; and
  • Violet Vivian Parry-Okeden (1883–1952), who later married Charles Dudley de Burgh Persse, of Tabragalba, Beaudesert, Queensland.

The family lived at Hawthorne, Bulimba, before they moved in January 1897 to the spacious residence of 'Delamore',[12][13] 115 Turner Road, Kedron, Brisbane. His wife died in July 1918. In his last few years, he lived with his daughter Rosalie Pockley and her husband at Redcliffe.[2]

Following injuries after being struck by a motor car,[5] Parry-Okeden died on 30 August 1926 in Brisbane and was buried in Balmoral Cemetery.[14]

He was subject of a 1927 book A son of Australia: Memories of W. E. Parry-Okeden, I.S.O., 1840–1926 by Brisbane journalist Harry C. Perry.[1][15]

External links[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d ""A Son of Australia."". The Brisbane Courier (21, 813). Queensland, Australia. 24 December 1927. p. 20. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Obituary Mr. Parry-Okeden". The Week (Brisbane). CII (6, 645). Queensland, Australia. 3 September 1926. p. 10. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Queensland Pioneers". Cairns Post (11, 283). Queensland, Australia. 13 April 1938. p. 16. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Mennell, Philip (1892). "Okeden, William Edward Parry" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Literature". The Australasian. CXXIV (4, 139). Victoria, Australia. 5 May 1928. p. 7 (Metropolitan Edition). Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Official notifications". The Brisbane Courier (11, 688). Queensland, Australia. 1 July 1895. p. 6. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "William Edward PARRY-OKEDEN, Commissioner of Police". Truth (Brisbane newspaper) (175). Queensland, Australia. 7 June 1903. p. 5. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ Persse, Michael D. De B. Collins. Parry-Okeden, William Edward (1840–1926). Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  9. ^ "First Queensland Derby". Monument Australia. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Mr. W. E. Parry-Okeden". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) (14, 579). New South Wales, Australia. 31 August 1926. p. 9. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Weddings". The Queenslander (2397). Queensland, Australia. 2 March 1912. p. 15. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "Delamore (former)". Brisbane City Council Local Heritage Places. Brisbane City Council. September 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Delamore, Stately Home to Convent to Retirement Community". Chermside and Districts Historical Society Inc. Retrieved 12 April 2021.
  14. ^ "Pioneer passes". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 31 August 1926. p. 4. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
  15. ^ "W. E. PARRY-OKEDEN". Western Star and Roma Advertiser (3983). Queensland, Australia. 30 August 1930. p. 3. Retrieved 12 April 2021 – via National Library of Australia.


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