On the Darling Downs there once was a schoolteacher who 120 years ago was forced to ‘pack heat’. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.

Harry Archibald Bidgood was born into a good pioneering family in 1877 at Hampton just north of Toowoomba. Bidgood’s father claimed the Commonwealth record for the oldest pony that lived to over thirty-five years of age, and both Bidgood’s father and mother were presented to the Duke and Duchess of York during the 1927 Royal Visit.

Bidgood was one of ten children and despite growing up with so many brothers and sisters, his career disciplining children as a schoolteacher didn’t always go well, in fact he was forced to carry a gun for protection.

In 1905, Bidgood was in charge of the state school at Tooth just outside of Clifton. Bidgood lived by the school and across a hollow was the farmer William Reeves. Bidgood was a slight man, while Reeves was a big, muscular brute known as a strong man throughout the district. At the school Bidgood caned one of Reeve’s children more than once. The whole of the Reeves family took offence, including a nephew of Reeves who assaulted Bidgood and was fined £5.

It was at this point that a farmer living nearby said to Bidgood that if he was in his shoes, he would carry a revolver. And that’s exactly what Bidgood did.

And then one afternoon Bidgood met Reeves by the road. The big man was driving home in his sulky, saw Bidgood, accosted him for disciplining his boy, and tried to strike Bidgood with a whip. Bidgood took his revolver out of his pocket and pointed it at Reeves who made a grab for the revolver and told him to shoot. And again that’s exactly what Bidgood did.

Bidgood then rode to the Clifton police station to turn himself in to acting-sergeant James Knox. This was the same policeman who previously had unknowingly arrested an international criminal genius.

In any case, Reeves had been shot in the stomach, lingered for a few days, and died. Bidgood was charged with wilful murder and faced trial in Toowoomba. He faced the esteemed Judge Arthur Baptist Noel, who would become known the finest legal luminaries that Queensland had produced.

The judge’s daughter Vivienne may have exceeded her father’s fame, however, as a Brisbane society girl known as Vivacious Vivienne who enjoyed a professional stage career.

At the end of the trial, the jury, without leaving the box, found Bidgood not guilty of wilful murder and not guilty of the lesser charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm. In other words, the schoolteacher had acted purely in self-defence.

Bidgood was rewarded with promotions to schools such as Bowenville, Toowoomba North, Cannon Hill in Brisbane, Victoria Point by the Bay, and then Kingsthorpe back out west of Toowoomba.

That’s where in 1935 that Bidgood’s preference for caning children again got him in hot water.

During a lesson Bidgood gave one of his students Norman Kruck three cuts from one of his lighter canes, one that was two and a half feet long. The boy ran home, and shortly afterwards his father Norman Kruck Snr stormed into the school. In front of the entire student body, Kruck threatened to punch Bidgood in the face if he caned his son again.

Bidgood took the enraged parent to court. Evidence for the defence included another parent saying that Bidgood was a cruel teacher and caned one of his children so often that he had to change schools.

The magistrate found in Bidgood’s favour, however fined Kruck the paltry sum of six shillings and declined to bind him over to keep the peace. The magistrate had taken pity on Kruck and perhaps there was good reason.

Kruck’s father-in-law was a respected member of the Millmerran Shire Council who was killed when getting off a moving train. Kruck’s wife had recently died young, leaving Kruck to raise their children on his own, and all this while Kruck moved his family between station master jobs at Muckadilla, Orallo, Millhill, Kingsthorpe, and elsewhere.

And Norman Junior, the son who ran home after getting the cuts, he was presumed dead during the Second World War when his training aircraft crashed, killing all four on board. Today there’s a memorial to the tragedy near Port Fairy in Victoria.

So that’s Harry Bidgood the Darling Downs school teacher who killed one parent and took another to court, and kept caning his students for one of whom a monument was erected.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON 4AK.

Photo Credits:
One Parent Dead, Another in Court – Harold Peacock with Copilot 2026.
Duke and Duchess of York on the train in Toowoomba 1927 – Picture Ipswich.
Judge Arthur Baptist Noel – State Library of Queensland.
Either Southbrook Central State School or Kingsthorpe State School – State Library of Queensland.
Avro Anson Memorial Yambuk Port Fairy Victoria 2015 – Monument Australia website.