Senior Constable Edward Webb-Bowen Print Page

The monument commemorates Senior Constable Edward Mostyn Webb-Bowen who died in an exchange of gunfire in 1879 with Captain Moonlite and his gang. The monument features a fenced metal sculpture of a mounted policeman on a horse and a black granite tablet. 

Project Bowen, was established in 2013 by the Wagga Wagga Police and the Wantabadgery community to raise awareness and funds to build a monument to remember the fallen officer. Following an archaeological survey, art exhibition, art auction and generous donations from individuals and local businesses, the monument was completed. Bowen’s grave in Gundagai was also restored.

During an evening in mid November 1879, ‘Captain Moonlite’ and his gang held up Wantabadgery Station and took a number of hostages. After eating and drinking, the gang moved to a nearby pub, The Australian Arms Hotel, and more hostages were taken.

At 4am, officers from Wagga Police arrived and gunfire was exchanged with the gang. Officers retreated and waited for reinforcements from Gundagai. On arrival of Gundagai Police, the officers attended nearby McGlede’s farm and found ‘Captain Moonlite’ and his gang. Shots were exchanged and Senior Constable Webb-Bowen was shot in the neck. On Sunday 23 November 1879, Senior Constable Webb-Bowen, known as Edward Bowen, died as a result of the gunshot wound.

Andrew Scott (Captain Moonlite), Thomas Rogan, Frank Johns and Graham Bennett were first tried in Gundagai, and later at Sydney for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen and, in an appeal to the court, Scott pleaded for leniency for his accomplices saying he had engineered the raids and was solely to blame for them following his bidding. "Let those who stand beside me go free." He appealed. All four were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging before an enthusiastic court of some 2,000 people. After appeals, the sentences of Williams and Bennett were later commuted to "life with hard labour".

One hour before Andrew Scott was hung at Sydney's Darlinghurst gaol on January 20th., 1880, he asked as his last request that he be laid to rest at Gundagai, near the graves of his friends and cohorts James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke, who were killed in the shoot-out at Wantabadgery. It was not until 1995 his body was removed from Sydney's Rookwood cemetery and re-interred at Gundagai, ironically, also within a few metres of Constable Edward Mostyn Webb-Bowen, who was laid to rest in the cemetery. 

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