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{{Short description|Australian policeman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}
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==Early life==
Frederic Charles Urquhart was born at [[St Leonards-on-Sea]], [[Hastings]], [[East Sussex]], England on 27 October 1858. His father was an officer in the [[Royal Artillery]] and his uncle was a colonel in a cavalry regiment of the [[British Army]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article179936316 |title=
==Native Police career==
In 1882, Urquhart was appointed to the paramilitary [[Native Police]] as a cadet and was promoted quickly to the rank of second-class sub-inspector within the year. He was initially posted to the barracks near [[Georgetown, Queensland|Georgetown]] and then to the Carl Creek camp on the [[Gregory River (Australia)|Gregory River]]. While stationed at Carl Creek, Urquhart was ordered to go to [[Burketown]] and remove the Aboriginals residing there. He rounded them up and marched them east to the [[Leichhardt River]] where he threatened to shoot dead their traditional healer if he did not make it rain.<ref name="Fysh">{{cite book |last1=Fysh |first1=Hudson |title=Taming the North |date=1950 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |location=Sydney}}</ref>
In March 1884 Urquhart was transferred to the [[Cloncurry, Queensland|Cloncurry]] district to replace the Native Police officer, Marcus Beresford, who had recently been killed in the ongoing conflict with the local Indigenous population. Urquhart and his troopers were soon involved in skirmishes with the resident [[Kalkatungu|Kalkadoon]] and [[Maithakari]] peoples. He established a barracks outside of Cloncurry at a locality on the Corella River now known as Urquhart. In July 1884 a well-known colonist, James Powell, was killed by Aboriginals in the region and Urquhart and his troopers were mobilised to conduct a [[punitive expedition]]. [[Alexander Kennedy (colonist)|Alexander Kennedy]], a pioneer Scottish pastoralist in the [[Gulf Country]] district, accompanied Urquhart in his mission. Together this armed group conducted at least two large massacres of local Aboriginal people. Urquhart later wrote a poem entitled ''Powell's Revenge'' about one of the massacres. Some of the stanzas of this poem are as follows:
{{
in the fresh mountain air
from rock and craig that single shout
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lies without life or sound.<ref name="Fysh" /></poem>}}
A prospector in the area also came across Urquhart and Kennedy during their expedition. He described how they and the troopers had shot up one native camp, capturing an Aboriginal woman whom they were forcing to lead them to another Aboriginal camp.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20351453 |title=
[[File:1870nativepolice.jpg|thumb|left|Frederic Urquhart and his section of Native Police in the early 1880s]]
While based at Cloncurry, Urquhart was involved in other massacres of Indigenous people. Probably the most well known of these was the skirmish later known as the Battle Mountain
In 1888, Urquhart was transferred to conduct Native Police operations on the [[Cape York Peninsula]]. He was speared in the leg during a skirmish with Aboriginal people at the headwaters of the [[Wenlock River]]. This occurred as part of a punitive mission following the killing of colonist Edmund Watson near the [[Archer River]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article177608201 |title=Queensland News. |newspaper=[[The Telegraph (Brisbane)|The Telegraph]] |issue=5,220 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=6 July 1889 |
==General police career==
Urquhart was transferred to the civilian [[Queensland Police]] service in 1891 and returned to [[Cloncurry, Queensland|Cloncurry]]. He led police activities against striking workers in the area during the [[1891 Australian shearers' strike]]. In 1894 he was assigned back to the [[Torres Strait]] and was based at [[Thursday Island]]. In the police vessel, the ''Albatross'', he patrolled the pearling operations in the [[Torres Strait Islands]], arresting striking workers. With [[John Douglas (Queensland politician)|John Douglas]], Urquhart conducted an exploration journey around the [[Embley River]] in 1895. Urquhart was promoted to inspector in 1897 and was transferred to [[Brisbane]] in order to head the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).
Soon after Urquhart was appointed to the CIB, a number of botched police investigations into high-profile murders such as the [[Gatton murders]], led to the 1899 Royal Commission into the Queensland Police. The Commission found that Urquhart was neglectful in his duties, unsuited to the position and untrained in detective work. It recommended that Urquhart be transferred out of the CIB and a more competent person be appointed to the role as head of the investigative branch.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article217713782 |title=Police Inquiry. |newspaper=[[Toowoomba Chronicle
Despite the findings of the
==Queensland Police Commissioner==
On 1 January 1917 Urquhart was appointed as the 4th [[Queensland Police Commissioner]], a position he held until 16 January 1921. Probably the most notable incident during his tenure as Commissioner was the [[Red Flag riots]] that occurred in [[Brisbane]] in 1919. Police, together with armed ex-soldiers returned from WWI, fought extended street battles with unionists and Russian immigrants during these riots. Many casualties were reported with Urquhart himself being injured during the fighting.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article40388753 |title=Wild Scenes in South Brisbane. |newspaper=[[Cairns Post]] |volume=XXXII |issue=3314 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=25 March 1919 |
==Administrator of the Northern Territory==
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Urquhart was considered a poet of some talent and published several collections of verse including ''The Legend of the Blacks'' and ''Camp Canzonettes''. Many of his writings centred around relaying his experiences of shooting [[Aboriginal Australians]]. For instance the poem ''Told by the Camp Fire'' has the lines:
{{
We was there afore the sun-
Planted all round about their camp
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on piannys and organs too;
But the music of them there rifles
Were the sweetest I ever knew.<ref>{{Citation| author1=Urquhart, Frederic Charles.| title=Camp canzonettes : being rhymes of the bush and other things| date=1891| publisher=Gordon & Gotch| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-201006436|
==Family and later life==
Urquhart married Annetta Atkinson in 1891 and they had three children together; Miriam, Walter James and Hope Goldie Urquhart. Miriam married George Addison who was a WWI army officer and noted architect. Walter James Urquhart became the first officer to graduate from the Australian Army officer training program at the [[Royal Military College, Duntroon]] and he fought at [[Gallipoli]] and in [[Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem|Palestine]] during [[WWI]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127540697 |title=An empty chair to honour RMC's Staff Cadet No 1 |newspaper=[[The Canberra Times]] |volume=60 |issue=18,320 |location=Australian Capital Territory, Australia |date=27 November 1985 |
Frederic Urquhart retired to [[Brisbane]] in 1926. He died at St Helen's Private Hospital on 2 December 1935 and was buried in [[Toowong Cemetery]].<ref name="adb" />
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[[Category:1935 deaths]]
[[Category:Administrators of the Northern Territory]]
[[Category:Australian Anglicans]]
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[[Category:People educated at Bloxham School]]
[[Category:People from
[[Category:Politicians from Brisbane]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers]]
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