1883, Mr and Mrs Shallcrass: Heroic husband and wife

Courageous couple Annabella and Robert Shallcrass. (Nelson Provincial Museum)

Robert and Annabella Shallcrass are New Zealanders of the Year for their great courage in confronting an armed prisoner at Nelson Jail who had just killed a warder.

Shallcrass - New Zealander of the Year in 1868 for his detective work in solving the Maungatapu murders - was governor of the prison by 1883.

Early one July morning John Davidson serving a life sentence for manslaughter, seized two revolvers, killed a warder and tried to escape.

Robert and Annabella confronted him in a corridor and - armed with nothing more than the words they spoke - blocked his escape route and talked him down from his agitated state.

As they talked, Davidson's demand to be set free gave way to an insistent pleading that he was innocent.

It seemed he would give himself up but suddenly he turned one of the guns on himself and committed suicide.

The jury at the inquest recorded their admiration for the tact and bravery of Robert Shallcrass under such trying circumstances. However, they neglected to mention Annabella, who showed just as many of those fine qualities as her husband.

From the Herald archives:
'Shocking tragedy at Nelson', New Zealand Herald, 30 July 1883

'The Nelson tragedy', New Zealand Herald, 31 July 1883

Further reading:
Biographical details of Shallcrass family, Austen Family History