The Kelly gang conceived the idea of making armour in the winter of 1879. Ned Kelly stated that ‘without armour I could never have possibly robbed a guarded bank and disarmed police without taking life’. A schoolteacher, James Wallace, an ‘old pal’ of Joe Byrne's from boyhood, was named in detective reports as seeking to buy mouldboards (from ploughs or ‘cultivators') in or around August 1879.1 Only a few mouldboards were stolen, most being provided by the gang's many sympathisers.

About the beginning of February 1880 several selectors reported that mouldboards of ploughs had been stolen.2 Police informer Daniel Kennedy of Greta (also known as ‘Denny’ or the ‘diseased stock agent'), reported in a letter of 20 May 1880: ‘[M]issing portions of cultivators described as jackets are now being worked, and fit splendidly. Tested previous to using and proof at ten yards …'3

The prototype suit4 was made for Ned Kelly, on the far side of the Bald Hill, the mouldboards being shaped on a green log. Joseph Ashmead recorded:

Using a captured police Martini-Henry rifle, the breastplate had been shot on the inner side and found to be ‘proof’.6 The shot dent on the top left inner side of the breastplate held by the La Trobe Picture Collection shows the test mark today.

The raid at Glenrowan commenced late on Saturday, 26 June 1880. After the taking up of the railway line the gang detained anyone at large, in the Glenrowan Inn environs and the railway stationmaster's house. But the expected Police Special Train failed to arrive. All Sunday the gang waited and allowed the ‘prisoners’ to see the armour in their reserved room of the Inn.7

James Reardon, a labourer on the railway line, described the armour he saw to the 1881 Police Commission. In reply to the question, ‘What way were they — front and back plate?’ he replied, ‘Yes, like on hinges and they were all pliable: but the back piece was all solid. There were two flaps that hung down here — [explaining] — and they were on hinges like’.8

The Police Special belatedly arrived around 2 a.m. on the Monday morning, 28 June 1880. The gang had prepared to leave; now they donned their armour. Soon after they exchanged fire with Superintendant Hare's party of police in front of the Glenrowan Inn. Shortly after, Ned Kelly approached police alone. Constable Gascoigne had an exchange with Kelly and shot off a shoulder piece of his suit and souvenired it.

Kelly then left the area through the police ‘cordon’. At daybreak he returned. Constable Arthur detailed to the Royal Commission how he shot at Kelly using a Martini-Henry rifle: ‘…Then I fired at him again a second shot, and he seemed to stagger … and then I knelt down and aimed at a white mark — a slit in the helmet -and he staggered again’.10

Jesse Dowsett, who was a railway guard armed with a ‘Colt's’ revolver, described to the Royal Commission aiming at ‘the top of his head … but it just went off like a parched pea’.11

Sergeant Steele discharged his shotgun twice into Kelly's thigh. Police and others rushed in to seize Ned Kelly as he sank onto his haunches. Thomas Carrington, artist for the Australasian Sketcher, had been on the Police Special train with Superintendant Hare's party of police and witnessed Ned Kelly's capture: ‘…then they began cutting the straps of the armour, the wires that held it on, and got it off; and two or three took him by the shoulders, helped him walk to the station’.12

Dr. John Nicholson had been roused by Hare to treat his wounded wrist upon the latter's return to Benalla. The Doctor went to Glenrowan with police reinforcements, and was present at Ned Kelly's capture and later treated his wounds (and took the green silk sash a grateful father had given young Ned for saving his son's life). Nicholson recorded: ‘…He complained of pain in his left arm whenever he was jolted in the effort to remove his armour. Messrs. Steele and Kelly tried to unscrew the fastenings of his armour, but could not undo it on one side. I then took hold of the two plates, forced them apart, and drew them off his body.'13

Senior Constable J. Kelly told the Police Commission that ‘we took the armour off and searched him. I searched him, and Dr Nicholson and I took the armour to the railway station …’.It was fastened on with ‘bolts and nuts’ ‘over the shoulder? — with straps … about two inches wide … of leather … and buckled’.14 In a sworn statement, Constable J. Kelly recorded:

At the time of Ned Kelly's capture around 7:00 a.m., Joe Byrne (shot dead around 5:30 a.m.) and the other two gang members, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart, all in suits of armour, were besieged in the Glenrowan Inn. Some eight hours after, the police would set fire to the Inn, in an attempt to flush out Dan Kelly and Steve Hart. Constable Armstrong carried Byrne's body from the blazing Inn. According to Armstrong, ‘I (then) took the armour off; the armour was on Byrne where he lay.'16 The bodies of Dan Kelly and Hart, with their armour, were not saved from the fire but recovered by police from the ashes of the Inn.

Two images record three sets of the Kelly armour shortly after it was captured by police: a sketch by Thomas Carrington of Ned Kelly's armour; and a photograph by Oswald Madelely which includes the scorched armour of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart.

After Ned Kelly was captured, he was taken to the railway station. Thomas Carrington ‘drew Ned Kelly while he was lying in the (train's) van and while he was in the stationmaster's house; and I made drawings of the armour on the station.'17 Carrington refers to Kelly's armour on the station platform, and an annotation to his drawings of the armour as published in the Australasian Sketcher records ‘weight 97 pounds’, as weighed on railway scales on the platform.18

As the siege continued several photographers arrived, including Oswald Madeley. Photographs were taken of the besieged and burning Glenrowan Inn, the railway station, bystanders and police at the scene, but the most important photograph regarding the Kelly armour is Madeley's showing the suits of armour of Dan Kelly and Steve Hart recovered from the razed Glenrowan Inn. This photo also displays the shot-off shoulder piece from Ned Kelly's suit along with Kelly's silk cap and rifle. The armour displayed in this photograph (bar the shoulder piece) is clearly different from the armour depicted in Carrington's drawing. The photograph was filed with the Melbourne Copyright Authority by Madeley on 5 July 1880,19 distinguishing it from other photos of fake armour filed some weeks later.20

Carrington drew the only suit of armour available in the morning, recording striking details that differentiate Ned Kelly's armour from the other suits. The detail observed in Carrington's sketch of Ned Kelly's helmet (the shape of the plates and location of the bolts fixing it together) is visible in the helmet held by the La Trobe Picture Collection. Prototypical errors are apparent in Ned Kelly's suit such as two right strap slots in both breastplate and backplate. Carrington even drew in the detail of one breastplate's slot being broken. The details observed in Carrington's sketch of Ned Kelly's breastplate and helmet are visible in the pieces held by the La Trobe Picture Collection.

Carrington's original sketch of Ned Kelly's armour had been ‘revised’ for publication. This is evident from its caption, ‘NED KELLY'S ARMOUR FROM A SKETCH MADE BY MR. T. CARRINGTON, as opposed to all other illustrations in the same edition captioned as ‘DRAWN BY …’.21

The revised sketch also includes pieces of armour not referred to by any eye-witness, including Carrington, notably a back lappet. In the accompanying article, the armour is described as having ‘…consisted of a long breast plate, shoulder plates back guard and helmet’.22 The final draft of the sketch printed presumed both plates and their manner of connection; this is demonstrated by the shoulder piece treatment. The twisted wire toggle is visible in the 1880 photograph atop the shoulder piece. Although the toggle is absent in the printed sketch, the detail of the twisted wire and the corner connection holes of the piece remain from Carrington's original draft sketch.

The pieces of armour now in the custody of Public Institutions and Ned Kelly's revolving rifle and skullcap seized at Glenrowan were depicted in Madeley's photograph and Carrington's sketch — (with the exception of the triangular-shaped lappet hung from the armour assemblage at the Old Melbourne Gaol). This piece the author believes is that referred to in Police Correspondence Books in late 1880.

In the aftermath of the destruction of the Kelly gang all their property was the subject of intense police and governmental interest.23 Movement of the armour seized can be traced via public records, police records, publications and correspondence. All pieces of armour now known can be traced back to their original seizure.

We have no contemporary visual record of Byrne's suit of armour. The items comprising Byrne's armour can be deduced, as the items not depicted in the Carrington sketch and the Madeley photograph, and further, by a simple chain of possession.

All the armour was taken on 28 June 1880. By 2 August Superintendant F. Hare was seeking Ned Kelly's armour for himself. A blunt exchange of correspondence took place between Hare and Sadleir. Hare: ‘You promised from the first …’ After Sadleir refused him, Hare persisted: ‘…I do trust you will let me have it as you first said you would.’ Sadleir, unmoved, replied, ‘It is quite out of the question my giving you up Ned Kelly's armour …’, adding that he [Sadleir ] was entitled to any trophy of the Kelly's. Hare's response was: ‘I intend to take what I can get out of the affair. Others changed their mind I don't see why I should not.'24

Indeed, Hare would secure the largest portion of the reward (£800) and relieve the authorities of an entire suit of armour (photographed and captioned as Ned Kelly's in his book), along with Kelly's rifle.25 However, the armour that Hare secured — and in 1881 bestowed, along with Kelly's revolving rifle, on the Clarke family at whose country seat he had recuperated — was Joe Byrne's.

The helmet and breast- and back-plate (along with the lappet seen in the 1880 Madeley photograph that has slots rather than holes) identified as Joe Byrne's is now in the custody of a descendant of the Clarke family.

Joe Byrne's armour had been taken to Melbourne. On 3 September 1880, Standish, still then Chief Commissioner, had written to Sadleir in Benalla: ‘Where are the 3 other suits of armour? Joe Byrne's is at the Depot.'26 Sadleir had spent August fending off Hare's requests for Ned Kelly's armour, suggesting that there was no reason why it should leave Benalla and offering alternatives: ‘Of course a temporary loan of the armour to show your friends is a different matter. I can send you either of the other suits, or you can take that at the Det. [sic] Office, to keep together at the Depot, where I certainly think one should be as the Headquarters of the Chief.'27

The Detectives’ Office in Melbourne had been directed to discover those responsible for making the armour, as part of broad enquires to identify and prosecute ‘Kelly Sympathisers.’ This inquiry must have seen Joe Byrne's suit; in the best repair, the best made, that was allowed by Sadleir (as it was not Ned Kelly's) to leave Benalla, delivered to the Detective's Office to assist their investigation. Sadleir knew on 5 August 1880, when he wrote to Hare, that it was in Melbourne. It still was at the Detective's Office the following year.

Nicholson was asked by the Chairman of the Police Commission on 25 March 1881: ‘Where is the armour of Ned Kelly … ?—It is in the depot.—Can the Commission see it?—I think so. I had three suits of armour at the depot.—Can we have Ned Kelly's armour brought here?—Yes; that can be done.[The Chairman requested that that might be done.]’.28 No time was lost complying with the request of those investigating the efficiency of the police force. The next day a memo was sent from the ACCP's Office to Sergeant-in-Charge of the Depot, Roche:

Sergeant Roche has written on the back of the memo received:

As Ned Kelly's armour had a shoulder piece, it would appear the Commissioners viewed Byrne's armour, soon to be taken by Hare and identified in his published memoirs in a photograph as Ned Kelly's armour.31

Sadleir, by September 1880, had thwarted Hare's attempts to get Ned Kelly's armour, and also held the suits recovered from the razed Glenrowan Inn (Dan Kelly's and Steve Hart's). Now, on 3 September 1880, Chief Commissioner Standish wrote wanting to know, ‘(w)here are the 3 other suits of armour? …Please let me know where the other suits are & I will then bring the matter under Mr Berry's notice’.32 The ‘matter’ was Standish's plan to apply immediately to Chief Secretary Berry for authority ‘to have the four suits smashed up.'33 Sadleir partially complied with this request, but only after a month's delay, and directed that two suits be sent down to Melbourne.

The arrival of ‘2 sacks of armour’ in Melbourne was acknowledged by telegram on 9 October 1880. Sadleir had known that Standish was to retire as Chief Commissioner at the end of September. However, Sadleir's failure to provide Ned Kelly's armour did not escape the notice of the new Acting Chief Commissioner of Police. On 22 October 1880, Sadleir, in charge at Benalla, received the dispatch: ‘Re Kelly's armour … where is the armour?’ Sadleir continued to resist the removal of the armour from his control. His protests were ultimately to no avail. Following several dispatches from the new Acting Chief Commissioner of Police, all armour in private and police hands, plus various souvenirs taken at Glenrowan, was gathered up and surrendered to Melbourne. The armour of Ned Kelly was produced at his trial in Melbourne, by Senior Constable J. Kelly on 29 October 1880.34 Constable Kirkham accompanied Kelly armour from Benalla to Melbourne for delivery to the Police Depot prior to 1 November 1880.35 Sadleir had saved the armour from destruction.

After terse correspondence between Sadleir in Benalla and the new Acting Chief Commissioner of Police's Office in Melbourne regarding the Kelly armour in particular, a dispatch was received on 1 December 1880 from Melbourne requesting ‘the whole of the Kelly armour’ to be forwarded to the Melbourne Depot. Sadleir replied: ‘The Police are in possession of no more. There is a small piece in Wahgunyah in private hands which if it can be got will be sent to the depot.’ After Sadleir instructed the Wahgunyah Police to forward the Kelly armour held there, they reported having sent a piece to the Melbourne Depot on the 2 December, which was confirmed in a dispatch from Sadleir.36

The silk skull cap found by Senior Constable J. Kelly was souvenired by him. The Correspondence Book records on the 25 October 1880 a note: ‘Re Ned Kelly's skull cap — It is to be regretted that S/C Kelly did not bring property before the authorities’. S/C Kelly would have to give it up. On 10 November 1880 Sadleir confirmed: ‘cap received’.

The experience of his colleague, J. Kelly, probably saw Constable Patrick Gasgoigne take steps to preserve his memento, the shoulder piece shot off Ned Kelly's suit. ‘My father threw it in a creek for hiding as soon as he got it’, stated his daughter, Mrs Kitty Davenport, in a 1967 interview with Tom Prior of the Sun.37

The four suits of armour were made individually, reflecting the physique of the intended wearer and the skill of the person making each suit. Hart was recognised by contemporary accounts as the most diminutive member of the Kelly gang.38 Measurement of the plates that are candidates for his suit reflect the difference in stature between him and Dan Kelly.

As noted above, S/C Kelly saw only one shoulder piece on Ned Kelly's suit when he was taken, his colleague Gascoigne having already souvenired the other. Only now has this plate resurfaced, apparently sold by Kitty and/or her niece in 1970 to a private collector. According to various publications, the other shoulder piece ‘disappeared’ before or after its transfer to the La Trobe Library.39

A shoulder piece was located by the author at a Museum Victoria store in Coburg, in April 2000.40 It matches the item seen in Madeley's photograph, though the twisted wire toggle is now absent. Its authenticity is proved by Supt Sadleir's reference in his memoirs41 to the manufacturer of the mouldboards used in Ned Kelly's suit as (Hugh) Lennon of Melbourne; the plate in storage is embossed on the concave side: ‘H Lennon / Melbourne / No 2’.

The Museum database explains the ‘disappearance’ of the item in this way: ‘Portion of armour claimed to have been worn by Steve Hart (Kelly Gang) … possibly worn suspended from body armour, but it is uncertain as to where it actually fitted, retained in arms collection when rest of armour was transferred to State Library of Victoria in 1964.'42 The shoulder piece can be seen suspended from the rear of Ned Kelly's armour in photographs taken of that ‘suit’.43

For unknown reasons the La Trobe Picture Collection suit was identified as Hart's. No connection of the shoulder piece and the armour held was possible, so it remained in storage when the rest of armour was transferred and subsequently displayed.

The armour now held by the La Trobe Picture Collection remained with the Chief Secretary's Department until displayed at the Melbourne Aquarium along with a shotgun barrel recovered from the razed Glenrowan Inn and the sawn-off carbine ‘…used by the Kelly Gang.’ After the Aquarium was burnt down in 1953, the armour was stored as part of the State Museum's Arms Collection, following a period at the Museum of Applied Science.44 A member of the Aquarium staff, Mr. R. Molloy, had posed for magazine photographers in ‘The (Ned) Kelly Armour’. Otherwise, the armour was hung over an easel in a corner as an ‘historic treasure’.45 Held by the State Museum as part of its Arms Collection until 1964, the suit (identified by a curator as Steve Hart's) was then transferred to the La Trobe Picture Collection, less the shoulder piece which remained in storage, and was believed lost.

On 9 January 1973 The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) announced:

The ‘loan’ was not ‘permanent’, and the suit was returned to the (now) La Trobe Picture Collection in the 1980s. This left the Old Melbourne Gaol with a pair of backplates from Dan Kelly and Hart's suits, one of their helmets and the triangular lappet, all lent by the Victoria Police. Although it was a matter of public record that none of these pieces were part of Ned Kelly's suit, the pieces have been displayed and merchandised by the Trust as being ‘Ned Kelly's Armour’ to the present day. Ironically, Ned Kelly's actual helmet and breastplate were identified as Steve Hart's until 2000, when current staff accepted that their predecessors had incorrectly identified the pieces. In contrast to the official attitudes of former times, the State Library now recognises the iconic nature of Ned Kelly's armour. With the cooperation of all the public custodians of Kelly Gang armour, Ned's suit could be authentically reassembled for public display.