Bendigo resident and keen historian Lynne Cooper has had an incredible response to her long awaited book, The Mystery Medal – A Tale of Crime and Compassion Castlemaine Goldfields 1889.

The book launched in late 2024 and the limited edition print run has all but sold out.

The biography details the colourful life of her great grandfather and former Castlemaine Goldfields police sergeant Henry William Frood who served on the goldfields for 32 years, and was presented with a gold medallion by the local Chinese community on his retirement in 1889. 

Lynne said the medal lay in her father’s briefcase for decades and was finally presented to the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo for safe-keeping. But the mystery demanded answers. What had Henry done to deserve this precious gift?

More than a century later and 30 years of research has unravelled amazing stories of crime and compassion and united the descendants of four families who are deeply connected to the medal, the goldfields and the Chinese community.

Readers may recall we put a call out to the local community via our sister paper the Midland Express in October 2023 to assist Lynne with tracking down the descendants of her great grandfather’s longtime colleague and fellow medallion recipient Sergeant Daniel Nowlan.

Ultimately, Lynne was able to track down members of the Nowlan family with the help of local genealogist Betty Jackman who located Daniel’s great grandson lawyer Frank Nowlan, and great, great grandson archivist David Nowlan online. 

The Nowlan family were not aware of the medallion presentation. However, they did have two Japanese Satsuma vases in their possession which they have since learned were also gifted to the policeman by the Chinese delegation at the time.

Frank and David Nowlan hastily researched the life of Daniel so they could make a contribution to Lynne’s book, and also have plans to have a replica of Frood’s gold medallion made in honour of Sergeant Nowlan.

Lynne said Frood and Nowlan defied the trend of their times in terms of their care of the Chinese.”I believe that the Chinese community waited to honour the pair until after their retirement as it would have been inappropriate to do so whilst they were in active service. It may have looked like they were seeking favouritism,” Lynne said.

“My great grandfather retired to Fitzroy and a Chinese delegation of diggers actually journeyed down to Melbourne to formally present him with the medallion. He must have been extremely surprised and honoured by this gesture. From what we have been able to ascertain, very few medals were awarded in such a way by the Chinese,” Lynne said.

The book is now available for loan at the Castlemaine Library and a handful of remaining copies are available for purchase at the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo.