Lancers Barracks Parramatta

Lancers Barracks was built by Lt. John Watts in 1818 under instructions from Governor Macquarie. It was finished and operational in 1820. This is one of the oldest still in use Barracks.

A Lancer is a soldier of a cavalry regiment armed with a lance. Lance is a weapon of war used by soldiers on horseback. It has a sharp metal point affixed to the end of the long. Wooden ( usually bamboo) pole. It is used to spear enemy soldiers.

Military presence in Parramatta traces back to 1788, when the first European settlement was established. The Regiment’s ties with Parramatta began in 1891, when the Regiment’s Parramatta Troop was founded.  Regiment’s Headquarters was established in 1897 and Lancers have called Parramatta their home since then. Lancers are Australia’s oldest and most decorated Regiments.

In the 1914-1918 war the Regiment, being militia, did not serve abroad. However most of its pre-war members joined the 1^st Light Horse Australian Imperial Force (AIF). They served at Gallipoli and as part of the ANZAC Mounted Division in Palestine, fighting in Sinai, Beersheba, Jerusalem, Jericho and Amman. By the end of the war, 224 men had died and 679 wounded.

At the end of the war and disbandment of the AIF, the 1^st Light Horse was effectively rolled back into its ‘parent’ militia Regiment, the NSW Lancers, which became known as the 1^st Light Horse (NSW Lancers). It was granted the title ‘Royal’ in 1935. It was a horsed regiment till 1936.

In 1956, the ‘1^st Light Horse Regiment’ was linked with ‘15^th Light Horse Regiment’ making the Regiment also the successor to the 15^th Light Horse Regiment AIF which had been formed in Palestine in 1918 from personnel from Imperial Camel Corps.

Darcy Dugan – Australia’s Most Notorious Escape Artist

Darcy Ezekiel Dugan was born on 29 August 1920 in Sydney. As per Ancestry he died in Glebe on 22 August 1991 at the age of almost 71 and is buried in Rookwood Cemetery.

Darcy committed numerous armed holdups, bank robbery and even robbing the hospital. He became famous for his daring escapes than for his initial crimes. Darcy gave evidence to an enquiry about the dreadful brutality regularly perpetrated against prisoners in Grafton Jail. In his evidence, he mentioned about daily brutal beatings and torture, and even throwing boiling water on prisoners. This prompted Bob Campbell to write a song about Darcy based on the evidence he gave.

Song can now be heard on You Tube

Dugan escaped from ‘escape-proof’ circumstances six times. He once went through a ceiling, the roof and sneaked over the outer wall at Sydney’s Long Bay Jail in daylight. He was located 30 metres away from an armed guard and this was the second incident in the same day 25 minutes after being imprisoned.

Darcy Dugan escaped from a prison tram on 4 March 1946, which was transporting him between Darlinghurst Courthouse and Long Bay jail. He used the kitchen knife to rip a hole and escaped as the tram passed the Sydney Cricket Ground. The tram is still kept at the Sydney Tramway Museum.

Darcy spent 43 years in jail and when he was out for a short time in the 1970s he became a social worker and began exposing police corruption involving crooked cops and gangsters. The crooked cops then framed him and put him back inside for a crime he did not commit. 

Dugan worked as a rehabilitation officer during his final years of freedom until his health declined. In 1980, Darcy married Jan Simmonds, who he had met in prison while she was researching a book about her brother Kevin Simmonds, famous for being an escapee and fugitive in the late 1950s. Although they separated not long after their marriage but they remained friends and Jan looked after Darcy during his last days.

 References:

https://www.geni.com/people/Darcy-Dugan/6000000021935970060

https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10182-478950/darcy-dugan-in-biographical-summaries-of-notable-people?indId=externalindividual-1888ba111b04ca54c46e22375a50ffb8&trn=partner_Geni&trp=logged_out_matches_module

https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10450-9217513/canberra-times-act?indId=externalindividual-1888ba111b04ca54c46e22375a50ffb8&mrid=606d2362a01471577ec58c3950740a17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRGKjvpPVUI        

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darcy_Dugan