Captain Frederick Charles Standish (20 April 1824 – 19 March 1883[1]), often referred to as "Captain Standish", was a Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria (Australia).
Standish was a known gambler on English racecourses, and lost a significant amount of money. He sold his mortgaged property in 1852 and left England for the Australian colonies.
The contingent of trackers sent to Victoria. L-R: Senior Constable Tom King, Queensland Sub-Inspector Stanhope O’Connor, Troopers Jimmy, Johnny, Hero, Barney and Jack, Superintendent J. Sadlier and Standish
Standish went to Victoria in 1852, and in 1854 was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Goldfields at Sandhurst (Bendigo), and in 1858 Chinese Protector. On the resignation of Sir Charles MacMahon he was made Chief Commissioner of the Police.[2] In 1879 he brought a contingent of Queensland PoliceAboriginal trackers to assist in the hunt for the Kelly Gang. He resigned from the role of Chief Police Commissioner in 1880.[verification needed]
In 1861 he was installed as District Grand Master of the Freemasons of Victoria, English constitution.[2] From 1881 to 1883 Standish was chairman of the Victoria Racing Club,[1] and is credited with forming the idea to hold a horse race and calling it the Melbourne Cup.[3][4]
Standish wrote of his experiences as a senior figure in the administration of early Victoria in The Leader, a Melbourne newspaper under the bylines "The Contributor" and "An Ex-Official" in a series of sixteen informative and historically valuable articles in 1887.[5]
Standish's association with Marcus Clarke and his membership of the Yorick Club are discussed in Michael Wilding, 'A Friend of My People a Home: Marcus Clarke and Captain Frederick Standish', Quadrant, 56, July–August 2012, and in Wilding, 'Wild Bleak Bohemia: Marcus Clarke, Adam Lindsay Gordon and Henry Kendall: A Documentary', Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014.
