In the early 1930’s a family member from Bostobrick, when passing through Nymboida, was asked by some of the locals to pose for a photo dressed in wedding clothes because he looked so much like Frederick Wordsworth Ward aka Captain Thunderbolt. This photo has been on display in the Nymboida Hotel/Motel ever since. It was found by the Daily Telegraph and they placed it in their paper on 2nd Feb, 2004 and claimed it to be a photo of Thunderbolt on his wedding day in 1860.

Just recently in Jan 2005, I was approached by a member of the Monckton Family who gave me the second photo. They claim it is a photo of Fred Ward taken around 1868 while Fred and their great grandfather Will Monckton were together. Compare the family likeness in the 2 photos.

The third photo is the one taken of the body after the killing of Thunderbolt on the 25th May 1870, note there are no markings on the forehead despite the claim by Constable Walker that he hit him on the head, causing bleeding from the mouth and nostrils. The photographer, a Mr A Cunningham, reported that he took 10 photos at this time. We only have copies of 5 of these. One was taken of the body, which was seated upright in the coffin with a hat placed on the head. Usually this has been the preferred photo used in publications and news stories, probably because it is the least disturbing of the photographs and is claimed to cover the damage done by Constable Walker.

It is interesting to note that this alternative photo, the one without the hat, shows no injury to the head and that the autopsy surgeon, Dr Spasshat, fails to record any injury to the head whatsoever.

The police gazette of Wed 24th Nov, 1869 page 363 has the following record “The offender, Frederick Ward is described as 35 years old 5ft 8ins high, dark complexion, and dark beard with sandy points & short curly hair, dressed in a crimean shirt worn outside moleskin trousers.” This certainly is most like the photo in the centre, not the photo taken of the body after the autopsy.

A 1871 American state census shows that a Frederick Ward (file #SC289) and a Sarah Shepherd (file #SC319) arrived in America in 1870. Sarah Shepherd (My G-g-granmother’s correct married name) was the mother of Fred Ward. According to our family records she disappeared at about the same time as Thunderbolt’s death, yet her mother, Sophia Ward’s death certificate in 1874 shows Sarah as still being alive. It is my belief that these are our Fred Ward & his mother, Sarah, who went to America in late 1870 and then moved on to Canada.