Henry John Wager, was born to William and Suzanna Wager on the 1st
December, 1826, in Ceylon. His father was a British Police Officer,
attached to the Colonial Police in that Country.
Shortly after his birth, his father retired from the Police and
journeyed to Australia to settle in Bathurst.
Henry married Elizabeth Anne Webb, in February 1847 at the St. James
Church in Sydney, but unfortunately his wife died in childbirth in
1848.
The archives indicate that Henry travelled to Great Britain where he
joined the Birmingham Borough Police on the 31st August, 1848, which
was just nine years after that Force was formed. He was posted to
the 1st Division, which in those days covered the town centre. Wager
was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on the 20th December, 1853 and
resigned at his own request on the 2nd August, 1857. It is believed
that all his service was spent in the uniform branch in the
Birmingham Police, although the Borough did have a Detectives
Department comprising of nine men in those times.
Henry Wager married Eliza Goodyear whilst he was in England and had
one child to that union, a son William Henry Wager, born in 1855.
The Wager family travelled to Sydney in the latter part of 1855 and
took up residence at 63 Riley Street, Sydney. Records show he
followed the occupation of a clerk, until 1st January, 1863, when he
gained employment with the newly formed New South Wales Police
Department as the Record Keeper and the Clerk of Detectives. The
Government decreed he be allowed Police premises at 40 Riley Street,
Woolloomooloo and forage in kind for two horses. Henry joined the
Police Proper as a supernumary in 1864 and in 1867, as a First Class
Detective, was placed in charge of the small Detective Force, which
was attached to the Foot Police. He continued on in this capacity
for some years and on the 6th October, 1875 was promoted to the rank
of Sub-Inspector. In the same year he shifted his place of residence
to 305 Liverpool Street, Sydney.
On the forming of the Criminal
Investigation Branch, in 1879, Wager continued on as Officer in
Charge and was responsible for keeping the criminal records of the
Colony and the compiling of the Police Gazette. Records show that in
late 1879 he suffered from severe headaches and a swelling of the
face, spending a considerable time off duty.
On the 8th May, 1880, he applied to the Inspector General of Police
to be released from the Department so that he might take up the
position of Deputy Controller of Prisons in New South Wales. The
following passage is an extract from that application:-
'My object in making this application is to enable me, if
successful, to devote more time to my home and its
requirements, that I can possibly do in my present position
as Inspector in Charge of the Detective Police.'
On the 31st May,
1880, Henry John Wager left the New South Wales Police Department
and took up his new post. Wager spent four short years with the
Prisons Department before he died on the 15th September, 1884, at
his home which is still standing at 415 Riley Street, Surry Hills.
The death certificate indicates he suffered from 'Apoplexy'
(inability to feel or move, caused by the blockage or rupture of a
brain artery).
The first Inspector in Charge is buried with his wife Eliza and
their only son William Henry Wager in grave 1007, Church of England
Select Division, Section 2, Waverley Cemetery. The last direct
descendant of Henry John Wager, his grandson Lysle Henry Wager, a
bachelor, of 131 Gloucester Street, Sydney, died of stomach cancer
on the 6th March, 1952.
