[Editor: This article, a court report regarding a robbery, was published in The Southern Mail (Bowral, NSW), 9 August 1940.]
Blowing of Mail office safe.
Defendant makes statement.
At Bowral Police Court on Thursday before Messrs. E. L. Brake and Walter Stokes, J’s.P., Bruce Albert Grant was charged that he did break and enter the office of Hector Lamond, of Bowral, and steal therefrom money and coins to the value of £9. Defendant who reserved his defence was committed for trial at Campbelltown Quarter Sessions on 30th September.
John Henry Aldridge, detective sergeant of Sydney, deposed that on 16th July he visited the office of Hector Lamond situated in Wingecarribee Street, Bowral. He saw an iron safe the lock of which had been broken by an explosive inserted in the keyhole. A fanlight over the doorway leading to the safe room had been forced out of position. On a drawer of the safe were marks which were recently made and appeared to have been made by some person forcing the safe drawer from its position. At the rear of the building was a ladder leaning against the wall.
On Saturday, 3rd August, witness continued, he saw defendant at Albury Police Station. Witness after warning defendant, said h had reason to believe that defendant and a youth named William Kleeman were responsible for blowing open a safe in the office of Hector Lamond at Bowral. Defendant said, “Yes; Kleeman and I did that job. I know you have arrested him and he has told you about it, so I might as well tell you the truth.” Defendant then agreed to make a statement which he signed and said was correct.
The statement (produced) said that defendant was with a man named Kleeman in Sydney on 27th June when they decided to blow a safe. They went from Sydney to Albury by getting lifts in motor cars and got gelignite, detonators and fuses they had hidden in a log there. They crossed the railway line and buried the explosives on the other side of a culvert near Ettamogah. They took two sticks of gelignite, four caps and about a foot of fuse before burying the explosives.
They went to Bowral and asked a boy where the billiard room was. They got two bob from a chap there for a drink of tea. They walked around to look for a place and decided to blow the safe in the printing office. They got a ladder from the yard and put it against a window and pushed. The window was closed but not locked and came open. Kleeman suggested putting rag round his finger so that fingerprints would not be left.
They walked around the office. They saw a locked door, and Kleeman said, “That is where the safe will be.” Kleeman stood on a chair and forced a window open and then climbed through and opened the door. Grant cut the fuse about six or seven inches long and Kleeman cut three inches off it. Kleeman lit the fuse and Grant ran out of the room and heard an explosion and came back. Kleeman did not leave the room. The handle of the safe door was blown right off. Grant picked it up, but could not open the door. Kleeman gave the handle a bump and opened the safe.
They pulled everything out of the safe and took all the money. Kleeman said there was a fiver and gave Grant two pound ten. They took some old coins out of a drawer, but Grant threw his away at Bowral Railway Station. Kleeman bought two tickets and they travelled to Sydney on the train which left Bowral at two o’clock in the morning.
Hector Spence Lamond deposed that he was employed by his father. On Monday, 15th July, he left the office in company with two other employees and saw one of them lock the front door. The windows of the building were closed and the safe and the safe room door were locked. On 16th July he found the drawers in the office in a state of disorder. The safe room door was locked, but a fanlight over it had been forced from its hinges. The safe door was open and was being kept open by books in the safe.
A tray had been removed from the safe and £8 11s. 4d. in money taken from it. The cheques had been placed alongside the tray on a shelf. Four shillings and fourpence contained in a till under the front counter had been taken from the till which was then closed. A tin containing between twenty and thirty old coins had been removed from the safe and the coins taken from it.
John Henry Helm, office boy employed by Hector Lamond, deposed that on Monday, 15th July, he was standing near Burchell’s shop in Bong Bong Street, Bowral, when the man before the court and another man approached him. They asked him where the billiard room was. He thought defendant was the man who asked the question. The two men then went in the direction of the billiard room.
Defendant was committed for trial at Campbelltown Quarter Sessions.
A youth who appeared before the Children’s Court on a charge of breaking, entering and stealing, was committed for trial at Campbelltown Quarter sessions on 30th September.
Source:
The Southern Mail (Bowral, NSW), 9 August 1940, p. 2
Editor’s notes:
Hector Lamond = Hector Spence Lamond (1865-1947), a printer, editor, newspaper manager, and politician (for the Australian Labor Party, and then the Nationalist Party); he was born in Broughton Creek (Shoalhaven, NSW) in 1865, and died in Bowral (NSW) in 1947
See: 1) Coral Lansbury, “Hector Lamond (1865–1947)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Hector Lamond”, Wikipedia
Hector Spence Lamond = Hector (Hec) Spence Lamond (1905-1985), newspaper editor and proprietor; son of Hector Lamond (1865-1947) and Gwynetha Lamond (née Spence) (1877-1963); he was born in St Leonards (Sydney, NSW) in 1905, and died in Sydney (NSW) in 1985
See: 1) Philip Morton, “Local Private Hospitals Part 2: Bowral”, Newsletter (Berrima District Historical & Family History Society Inc.), June 2021 (no. 538), pp. 6-7 (see p. 7, column 2) [gives birth year as 1905]
2) “Southern Highland News”, Wikipedia
3) “Hector Spence Lamond”, Family Search [gives birth and death dates as: 28 September 1906–31 May 1985]
4) “Family history research guide”, NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages [Births: Hector S. Lamond, Registration Number 37572/1905]
5) “Hector Spence “Hec” Lamond”, Find a Grave [gives birth and death dates as: 28 September 1905 and 31 May 1985]
J’s.P. = (abbreviation) Justices of the Peace
[Editor: Changed “They window was” to “The window was”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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