New plaque laid in honour of slain police officer Constable Albert Ring who was shot and killed in Glenelg in 1908
A hero police officer shot in cold blood by a drunk man he had arrested a day earlier is being remembered by a new and improved Glenelg memorial.
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Along a 15km route, winding through the fledgling suburbs of 1908 Adelaide, a funeral procession passed in front of thousands of mourners.
Children were excused from class on that Tuesday morning March 31 so they could salute the coffin as it passed by. Firefighters in Adelaide stood to attention and hundreds of police officers met the procession as it reached the city.
Finally, at 5pm and hours after his final journey had begun, Foot Constable Albert Ring was laid to rest in Payneham Cemetary.
The procession was thought to be one of the biggest in state history and was only appropriate to remember the popular officer gunned down while walking his beat in Glenelg.
On Sunday, more than 110 years after the murder, a new and improved memorial was unveiled in Mosley Square to commemorate Constable Ring and remember a crime which changed South Australia.
Past president of the South Australian Police Historical Society and former Deputy Commissioner John White said the previous plaque had fallen into dissrepair.
“We didn’t think this very popular police officer was being honoured in the way he should have been,” Mr White said.
“We are very grateful the sad sacrifice of Constable Ring is being remembered in such a prominent position.”
Constable Ring had left the warmth of his home at Glenelg Police Station which he shared with his wife and young daughter to meet the last train in the early hours of March 29, 1908. Part of a foot constable’s duties was to walk the streets unarmed and meet the last train to ensure passengers were safe.
Lurking in the dark of a nearby hotel was James “Joe” Coleman. Armed with a rifle, a grudge and a skinful of a whisky, Coleman was there to settle a score.
Only a day before Const. Ring had arrested Coleman for being publicly drunk. But being aware that Coleman was a fisherman by trade and due to sail out of Glenelg of Sunday, Constable Ring had endeavoured to get the well known “damned nuisance” before a Justice of the Peace that night.
After being fined five shillings for his inebriation, Coleman let loose, threatening to shoot Constable Ring for the perceived insult.
The Justice ignored the threat and Coleman went home, armed himself, shrugged off his wife who tried to stop him leaving the house, and stalked into the night.
Constable Ring spotted Coleman near the train station, standing with a group of people. As he approached Coleman raised the rifle and shot the policeman, leaving him grievously wounded and dying in the street.
Coleman fled the scene, heading deep into the southern suburbs, as Constable Ring’s offsider back at the station found his superior officer dead on Jetty Rd.
After an extensive search by police, Coleman was found on April 14 snoozing on the banks of Sturt Creek, near Morphettville Racecourse.
He denied being Joe Coleman but was made to pull up his trouser leg to show a damning tattoo which read “J.A. Coleman”. A jury took half an hour to find Coleman guilty of wilful murder and he was hanged at Adelaide Gaol on July 2. His body was buried on the grounds of the prison.
A damning inquest was held into the murder of Constable Ring and, in January 1909, the similar murder of Foot Constable William Hyde in Maryatville, led to foot patrols being armed with revolvers.
Previously they had only been equipped with a whistle and rattle to call for help.
Constable Ring is memorialised on the South Australian Police Roll of Honour and on the Wall of Remembrance at the Police Academy.
In 1999, a memorial cairn and plaque was laid in Moseley Square. However, developments and changes to the layout of the square led to the memorial falling into disrepair.
The new plaque was unveiled at the Glenelg Town Hall, next to the site of the Police Station where Constable Ring was based, at 2.30pm last Sunday, June 20.
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