DOUGLAS, ALEXANDER DOUGLAS (1843-1914), inspector of police and
explorer, was born at St Helier, Channel Islands, son of Alexander
Douglas Douglas, army officer, and his wife Ann, née Rouse. His joined
the navy in 1857 as a cadet and served in the Tientsin campaign and the
Taiping rebellion. His experiences gave him a taste for wandering and
adventure. In 1865 he left the navy and migrated to Rockhampton,
Queensland. For a time he satisfied his wanderlust by working as a
teamster and drover. Attracted by police work he became an officer in
the Queensland Native Police in 1872, and soon won promotion to
sub-inspector in charge of the area from Cooktown to the Palmer River
goldfield. In 1874 he was ordered to blaze a new trail from the
goldfields to Cooktown, a task which suited his taste. His success
secured him a second commission to find a practicable route to the new
Normanby field, and in 1876 to yet another new goldfield, the Hodgkinson.
For these achievements he ranks with the important explorers of the
north.
In 1879 Douglas moved to a new station, Jundah, in the west, but next
year was sent back to the north, this time to Biboohra on the Atherton
Tableland. His services were much in demand and he was brought to
Brisbane in 1881 to take charge of white police, but in 1882 he was sent
to Herberton in the north. Once again exploratory duties called him:
with four troopers, two old gold diggers and five Chinese, he blazed yet
another trail, this time from Herberton to Mourilyan. On this trip the
party was without rations and in continuous rain for twenty days, living
mainly on roots, but the leadership of Douglas brought them through. He
established a new native police camp at Mourilyan, and the government
allocated to him a small steamship Vigilant to assist his patrols
of the coast. At the end of 1884 he was given charge of the Townsville
district, but from May to September 1885, during the Russian scare,
because of his naval experience he was appointed commander of H.M.S.
Otter in the Queensland navy. His next move was to Roma but in 1886
he was sent north to Georgetown in charge of the Gulf district. There he
took charge of the largest gold escort, 26,000 oz., ever recorded in
Queensland. In 1888 he moved his headquarters to Normanton where he
remained until 1891. In 1893 he returned to Roma but in May 1898 became
senior inspector of the Northern district, stationed at Townsville. In
1900 he was transferred to Brisbane and on 1 July succeeded John Stuart
as chief inspector of the Queensland Police. He acted as commissioner
four times and in 1902 went to Roma to investigate the
Kenniff case. In 1905 Douglas was superannuated and returned to
England where he died on 5 February 1914 in a private hospital near
Portsmouth.
On 19 April 1884 at Charters Towers as a widower he had married Lucy,
who at 3 had come to Australia in 1858 with her father Abraham Street,
of Alva, Stirlingshire. They had no children. She died on 13 May 1905.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography
