Murdered police officer’s family honour his memory

NATIONAL Police Remembrance Day bears painful significance for Aspley’s 85-year-old Trevor Price.
Each year, the longtime St Dympna’s parishioner remembers in a special way his grandfather Constable Albert Price, a policeman who died on duty in 1905 after being stabbed twice while arresting an offender in Mackay.
Mr Price, speaking after the remembrance day service in St Stephen’s Cathedral on September 27, said his grandfather’s murder had a major impact on his family.
“My grandfather’s wife, Mary, lost all of her four children, among them my father after her husband’s death,” he said.
“Weeks after my grandfather’s death she also lost her fifth child during childbirth. In those days there was no remuneration to support a policeman’s widow.
The three boys including his father – Charles Archibald “Archie” Price – were eventually sent to St Joseph’s, Nudgee College to be educated.
“My grandmother was eventually reunited with her children and I understand they went to live in Longreach,” he said.
“Apparently the district inspector checked their progress from time to time.
“The whole matter was a very painful topic for my father.”
Constable Price was buried in an unmarked grave at Mackay Cemetery because his wife could not afford a headstone.
In 1998, then superintendent of Mackay Police Robert Retrot began the Albert Price Memorial Fund to give the officer a properly marked resting place after 93 years.
“We had a big family reunion with about 100 of us around then,” Mr Price said. “My grandfather’s grave is now marked with a police memorial to indicate he was murdered on duty.”