Mervyn Wood

Mervyn Wood served as Commissioner of Police from January 1977 to June 1979. The defining event of his tenure in the context of LGBTIQ history was the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on 24 June 1978. What began as a peaceful march of approximately 2,000 people through Oxford Street ended in baton charges by NSW Police, with 53 people arrested. Arrestees were named in the following day’s press, costing many their jobs and housing. The 1978 Mardi Gras crackdown became a foundational trauma in Sydney’s LGBTIQ community memory, and the names of those arrested are honoured annually at the parade. Commissioner Wood presided over a police force that treated the emerging gay rights movement as a public order problem to be suppressed rather than a community with lawful rights.

Tenure dates sourced from Wikipedia: List of commissioners of the New South Wales Police. Wikipedia is used for reference only; substantive claims are sourced to primary documents cited elsewhere in this project.