In the last issue of The PBA Magazine, we published a picture labeled “The Unknown Patrolman” (click here for link to story), showing a New York City police officer from the early 1900s whom we were unable to identify because the NYPD had no record of who wore his shield — #1857 — between 1902 and 1908. Now — thanks to the patrolman’s grandson, one John F. Kirk Jr. of Charlottesville, Va. — we have not only solved the mystery of this impressive-looking patrolman’s identity, we have learned quite a bit about him, including his war record and on-the-job heroism.

The patrolman was Officer John George Kirk, born in East Dorset, Vermont, in 1879, one of seven children of John B. Kirk and Mary Ellen Burns. According to his grandson, young John George volunteered for service in the U.S. Army in 1894 during the Spanish-American War. After the war, he went to New York City to live, entered the police academy and became an officer in the 32 Pct. He married Mary Anna Becky in 1898, and their only child, John Frederick Kirk (John F. Kirk Jr.’s father) was born in 1902.

Patrolman Kirk’s heroic act came in Dec. 1905, while he was walking his beat near the Harlem River Bridge. In the ice-packed currents of the wintry river, he saw a drowning man. Braving the frigid waters, he dived in and rescued the man. For his valor, he was awarded medals from the United States Volunteers Life Savings Corps and the Life-Saving Benevolent Association of New York.

Patrolman Kirk, a lover of horses, was ultimately assigned to what was then called the Mounted Horse Brigade (now the mounted unit). After about 10 years in that post, he was thrown from his mount and was retired on a disability.

He spent an enjoyable retirement in the Green Mountains in Manchester Depot, Vermont, where he became the game warden and pursued his passions for hunting and fishing. When he died, while on a trip to Pennsylvania in 1939, the towns of Manchester and East Dorset, Vermont, mourned the passing of this hero patrolman, unknown in these pages no longer.