Joseph Luker

Who was Joseph Luker?

Joseph Luker was a Sydney foot police officer who was recorded as the first police officer to be killed on duty in Australia.

Luker had been deported as a convict from Middlesex, England and disembarked at Jervis Bay from the Atlantis in 1791, as part of the Third Fleet after a voyage of 146 days. In 1796 Luker was declared a freeman and became a police constable.

On 26 August 1803 Luker was on a routine night patrol of Back Row East, now Phillip Street, Sydney, where a series of robberies had occurred.

When his body was found the next day, he had suffered 16 horrific head wounds, with the guard of his cutlass embedded in his skull.

Four men later faced court for his murder - Joseph Samuel, Isaac Simmonds, Richard Jackson and James Hardwicke. Three were acquitted, as were two fellow constables. Samuel was originally sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life imprisonment after three attempts to hang him had failed. Simmonds was strongly suspected of involvement in Luker's death, but this was never sustained in court.

Luker is now commemorated in the National Police Memorial at King's Park, Canberra.