Captured: Portraits of Crime 1870-1930 - Flipbook - Page 75
held at Grenfell, Young and Cowra where petitions for her release were organised.
By July 1903 the petitions had some 5000 signatures. Local parliamentarians,
William Holman and John Gillies, became involved in the case. They presented
petitions and led delegations to the Attorney General. Groups such as the Women’s
Progressive Association and the Women’s Political Educational League led by Rose
Scott, also petitioned for Herringe’s release. The high profile campaigner, Scott,
was most vocal in her support for Herringe as she believed that the young woman had
attempted to retrieve her honour when the law would offer no redress. However,
Attorney General Bernhard Wise had no sympathy for Herringe’s plight. Twice in 1903
he refused to reconsider her case or reduce any of her sentence. He did, however,
eventually agree that the trial judge could re-examine the case. Wise was soon
replaced in a ministry change and Herringe’s remission followed. On 28 July 1904
she was released from Bathurst Gaol.
Ethel Herringe does not appear again in the NSW Gaol Photographic Description
Books, 1870-1930. After her release from gaol, Herringe returned to her family in
Cowra. In July 1905 she married William Laws. He adopted the twins and they had
three more children. Herringe died in Sydney in 1958.
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