Captain Thunderbolt - Tocal's bushranger. Thunderbolt didn't kill anyone Thunderbolt was involved in several shootouts with police, so the fact that he never killed anyone may have been luck, but it added weight to the belief that Thunderbolt was the Gentleman Bushranger, the last of the professional highwaymen. This reputation was earnt by not harming women, often giving some money back, and shouting for everyone at pubs using stolen money. The illusion of the gallant highwayman suited Thunderbolt as he was regularly assisted by a sympathetic public. Thunderbolt is credited with committing up to 200 crimes.
Photograph: Uniformed police of the 1860s. Notes 1. 2.Further information is also available in the book Captain Thunderbolt - Horsebreaker to Bushranger which you can buy from Tocal [details] Bushrangers: Frederick Wordsworth Ward alias Captain Thunderbolt. This photo was taken when he was dead or then again it may be his uncle Harry! (read on to find out why) First of all I would like to say there is much contention and misinformation about Frederick Ward even including his date of birth and death. During the last seven years of his life Fred Ward had supposedly done more than eighty robberies of coaches, farms and hotels and became known as Captain Thunderbolt. He was also known for never killing or shooting those whom he robbed. Frederick Wordsworth Ward was born in the Windsor District of the Colony of New South Wales in the mid 1830's to Sophia and Michael Ward, a convict.
His first robbery was late in 1863, but when he found the toll keeper on the road between Maitland and Rutherford had only a few shillings he gave the money back. One of his vantage points, for robbing approaching mail coaches in the 1860's, now called Thunderbolt's Rocks, can be seen today from the highway near Uralla. Frederick (Captain Thunderbolt) Ward. Frederick Ward (1835-1870), bushranger, alias 'Captain Thunderbolt', was born at Windsor, New South Wales. He was working as a drover and horse-breaker at Tocal station on the Paterson River when arrested with James Garbutt and indicted for stealing and receiving seventy-five horses at Maitland on 21 April 1856; Ward was sentenced to ten years' hard labour on 13 August on the receiving charge. Released conditionally from Cockatoo Island late in July 1860, Ward worked as a horse-breaker at Cooyal near Mudgee until his ticket-of-leave was cancelled on 17 September 1861 for 'absence from Muster' and he was tried on 3 October for horse-stealing.
Returned to Cockatoo Island to complete his original sentence with an additional three years, Ward escaped with Frederick Brittain about 11 September 1863. in 1864-65 Ward lived quietly with his 'wife', Mary Ann, née Bugg, a half-caste Aboriginal, on the Culgoa River near Bourke with two children. Citation details. Australian Crimes - BUSHRANGERS.