Victorian cop and NT businessman Leslie O’Hagan remembered by loved ones at Darwin funeral

Leslie O’Hagan’s family and friends will never forget the NT businessman and top Victorian cop’s ‘wicked sense of humour’ and love for his family.

A Territory entrepreneur and one of Victoria Police’s most decorated officers in its 170-year history of will be remembered for his “wicked sense of humour” and humble heroics.

Former Victoria Police Inspector Leslie John O’Hagan was born in Liverpool on October 24, 1928 and was the eldest of five siblings.

After growing up through the Great Depression and World War II, Mr O’Hagan arrived in Australia in 1949 where he married wife Lee and joined the Victorian police force.

Once there he would go on to become one of only two people ever to receive Victoria Police’s Valour Award on two separate occasions.

Former Victoria Police Inspector Leslie O'Hagan.

Best friend John King – who said Mr O’Hagan was his first police boss – said the cop’s second Valour Award came after he arrested a man who held a shotgun under his chin.

“He simply walked up to the offender and another member of the public and pretended to be looking for a non-existent person,” Mr King said.

“Then he had a loaded shotgun under his chin and he managed to distract the offender and wrestled him into submission.”

Mr King said his friend received seven commendations, a Chief Commissioner’s certificate, and two Valour Awards during his service.

The pair met when Mr King joined the force and were mates within minutes.

“I’ll remember him as the very best friend you could ever have,” Mr King said.

“He was one of the strongest men I ever knew and once you were wrapped in a bear hug by Les, you were wrapped in a bear hug by Les and you weren’t going anywhere.”

Former Victoria Police Inspector Leslie O'Hagan received two Valour Awards during his service. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Mr King said his friend bought and moved to Mary River cattle station 240km south of Darwin in 1986, leaving his wife “speechless”, a story which was “typical of his humour”.

“I said to Les, ‘Les, you’re going to the Northern Territory, she wouldn’t want to do that’, and he said, ‘Yeah, she loves it, absolutely loves it’,” he said.

“I said, ‘No, she couldn’t’, he said, ‘Yes, she’s so excited about it, she’s speechless, she hasn’t spoken to me since I told her I’d bought it’.”

Leslie O'Hagan's granddaughter, Lily Lucend and daughter Donna Renshaw. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Mr King said his friend had also bought and run the Adelaide River Country Store, where he sometimes got up at 4am to get a cuppa brewing for the truckies.

“He turned it into a thriving little business,” he said.

“(His daughter) Donna worked there and (his son) Mark worked there and the grandkids, they all had a bit of a job.”

Leslie O'Hagan's daughter, Harmony Teelow, attends her father’s funeral in Darwin. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Daughter Harmony Teelow summarised her relationship with her father through the story of her childhood nickname.

Ms Teelow said her father would call her his Wreck of the Hesperus when she had food on her face, tangles in her hair, and “just before he would make everything right”.

It wasn’t until she discovered Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of the same name that Ms Teelow said she became offended by the name.

“I marched up to the house and said to my father, ‘Have you ever read the Wreck of the Hesperus?’,” she said.

“’Oh, yes,’ he said, and his eyes lit up and a smile went across his face and I said, ‘When did you read it?’

“He said, ‘I read it in school, it was my favourite poem’.”

When Ms Teelow reminded her father the poem was “about a dead girl”, her father simply said: “Yes, but she was beautiful”.

Victorian Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson attended a funeral service in Darwin for former Inspector Leslie O'Hagan. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Mr O’Hagan’s Darwin funeral service was filled with stories of how the retired cop and businessman made his friends and family smile.

But it also reflected on his service time as a Victorian policeman.

Mr O’Hagan joined the Victorian Police Force on May 11, 1953 and rose through the ranks until his retirement in 1986.

Victorian Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson – who attended the funeral – said Mr O’Hagan “wasn’t just another Victorian police officer, he was someone very special”.

“He was one of only two people in our whole history that ever received the Valour Award on two occasions,” Deputy Commissioner Paterson said.

“He was an amazing man.”