Australian Dictionary of Biography

John Ronald George Salisbury (1921-1980), police officer, was born on 29 May 1921 at Caulfield, Melbourne, second of three children and only son of John Thomas Salisbury, a bootmaker from Sydney, and his Victorian-born wife Elizabeth Jane, née Newland. Ron was educated at Tyler Street State School, Preston, and Richmond Technical School. He began to study surveying, but changed to industrial chemistry and worked for a manufacturer of lacquer-finishes used in the shoe and leather industries.

After joining the Militia in March 1939, Salisbury was called up for full-time duty on 31 October 1941. He served with the artillery in Victoria, and with the artillery and engineers in Queensland. In October 1942 he transferred to the Australian Imperial Force. On 28 January 1943 he was discharged from the army to enable him to enlist next day in the Royal Australian Air Force. Having learned to fly in Australia, he undertook advanced and operational training in Canada and Britain respectively. At Pendref Chapel, Caernarvon, Wales, on 19 September 1945 he married with Congregational forms Winifred Williams, a telephone-operator. Promoted warrant officer pilot, he returned to Melbourne and was demobilized from the air force on 18 March 1946.

Fifteen days later Salisbury joined the Victoria Police Force as a recruit constable. His colleague and later chief commissioner S. I. Miller thought that he looked 'more like a benign schoolteacher or bank manager than a policeman'. Salisbury sported a moustache and, at 5 ft 9 ins (175 cm), seemed short for a policeman. Described as 'a thinker', he was dux of his training squad. He completed a range of operational duties, including a term with the scientific section (1946-47), service as a detective (from 1949) and an exchange posting with the South Australian Police Force (1951). In 1962-69 he was officer-in-charge, successively, of the Special Branch, Drug Bureau and Detective Training School. He was promoted inspector in 1969.

Colonel Sir Eric St Johnston arrived from England in 1970 to undertake a review of the administration and organization of the Victoria Police Force. Salisbury was one of the three staff officers who assisted him. Much of St Johnston's 217-page report drew on the ideas of Salisbury, who was subsequently made head of a new inspectorate and future-plans division to implement its recommendations. The restructuring which followed constituted a watershed in modernizing the police service. On 14 December 1977 Salisbury was promoted to deputy-commissioner, administration, a post in which he was able to effect further reform. His eccentricity and wry sense of humour belied an analytical and logical mind, and an incisive ability to manage organizational change.

Commended for outstanding service on numerous occasions, Salisbury was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 1977. He never achieved his goal of retiring to a cottage in Wales and writing his memoirs: he died of a cardio-respiratory condition on 11 November 1980 in South Melbourne and was cremated with the forms of the Churches of Christ. His wife and their two daughters survived him.