Obituaries Australia

The Victorian police force loses by the death of Sub-Inspector Flood one of its most prominent old identities, and a man who has done good service. Mr. Flood died on Monday at his private residence, in Clifton Hill. For about a quarter of a century the deceased officer was often heard of in connection with the more serious class of law breakers, and it is a tribute to his pluck and capability that Ned Kelly specially singled him out among policemen as the object of his hatred. To Constable McIntyre, whom the assassins held captive in the Wombat Ranges, Ned Kelly, not anticipating his prisoner's sensational escape and gallop for safety, confided the intelligence that if an opportunity ever arose he would not merely murder Mr. Flood, but torture him; and Officers Steele and Straban he anathematised with almost equal bitterness. The fact was Mr. Flood had outwitted him in his enterprises as a horse-stealer-in-chief, besides which, in later years, he was several times hotly on the trail of the gang; and, like Sherritt, whom they shot for "fizzing," or informing, he was a marked man. But the opportunity which Ned Kelly and his ruffianly understudies sighed for never came. In his younger days (says the Age) Mr. Flood was one of the fleetest of long distance foot runners, and an undeniably fine cross-country rider. All his life he took keen interest in coursing and other field sports. In the year 1897 he was raised to the rank of sub-inspector, after a long period of service in the north-eastern district; and at the time of his death he was the officer in charge of No. 2 division, which comprises Fitzroy, Carlton, and North Melbourne.