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The Early Years

When John Roche arrived in Sydney from Ireland in 1877, he found a wild and reckless town. He was just twenty-two years old.

He joined the Army for four years and worked as a professional boxer to subsidise his meager military pay, but his real ambition was to join the Police Force. With money he had earnt boxing, he bought his way out of the Army and in 1881, joined the NSW Police Department as a constable.

Although there was plenty of petty crime, the Police force’s main activity was against bushrangers, particularly in areas where gold from the goldfields was being shipped. In 1879 the Criminal Investigation Branch, the CIB, was formed and there that John Roche found himself.

Within this expanding Police Force, John Roche was a popular and diligent officer. Now rising in the ranks, he saw the introduction of bicycles in Sydney and into some country areas and in 1894, the NSW Police are issued with firearms for general use. He was now a detective and witnessed the formation of the Police Fingerprint Branch, which opened in 1903.

Next: The Blue Mountains Murders (1896-1898)