Ned Kelly’s shooting of George Metcalf, labourer

A core component of the popular Ned Kelly myth is that he had never taken innocent life. Against this, there is a documented case in which he directly caused a quarryman’s death. George Metcalf was one of the persons made prisoner by Ned Kelly in Ann Jones’ Glenrowan Inn during the siege of 27-28 June 1880, and it has been widely held that he was injured, and later died, in consequence of a police bullet fired during the siege. Metcalf, who could not afford medical treatment, stated that his injury occurred while he was sheltering in a fireplace during the shooting, and his surgical and related costs were paid by the police. However, subsequent enquiries by a detective found that the injury was caused by Ned Kelly on the afternoon before the siege, when he accidentally shot Metcalf in the face while fiddling with a revolver he had taken from a gravel contractor that morning. The Metcalf story was effectively forgotten for a hundred years after Ned Kelly’s death. When it was rediscovered, following a series of Kelly histories critical of the police, evidence concerning Kelly’s responsibility for Metcalf’s injury was typically overlooked or disregarded by those who clung to a belief in Kelly as a heroic figure who was more victim than criminal. The case of Metcalf illustrates how ready pro-Kelly historians have been to blame the police for every misadventure in the Kelly saga. In fact, however, Metcalf’s death must be laid squarely on Ned Kelly’s hands.