Tom Croydon

Thomas 'Tom' Arthur Croydon
Blue Heelers character
Portrayed by John Wood
Duration 510 episodes
First appearance A Women's Place
Ep. 1 (Pilot), 18/1/1994
Last appearance One Day More
Ep. 510, 4/6/2006
Profile
Occupation Sergeant ->
Senior Sergeant

Thomas Arthur Croydon (more simply known as Tom Croydon) is a fictional character in the long-running Australian television police drama Blue Heelers. He is one of two characters to appear in all thirteen seasons, 1994 to 2006, and is an original character. We see him in the first few seasons as the Sergeant of Mount Thomas Police Station, who later is promoted to Senior Sergeant.

He has been married twice; first, to Nell Croydon (who died in the Second Season). She was mentioned in nearly every episode, yet we only see her left eye and her hand in the episode in which she died. Tom and Nell had two daughters, Susan and Anna; Anna by whom Tom has two grandchildren - Samuel Thomas Croydon (more known as Sam) and Daisy Alcott.

His second wife was the local reverend of the Mount Thomas Anglican Parish, Reverend Grace Curtis. He married her in the ninth season. Upon marrying her, he took on the role of becoming a stepfather to Grace's two sons, Daniel and Nelson. Grace died in the eleventh season after being raped and murdered by town-terror Troy Baxter (who later died in accidental circumstances). Her death occurred in the episode in which the original station was bombed, killing Jo Parrish and Clancy Freeman, although we don't find out that she is dead until the next episode. His stepsons moved from Mount Thomas to live with their grandparents after Daniel was accused of gang raping a local girl.

Tom later reconnects with his eldest daughter, Anna, (with whom he had had minimal to no contact since the birth of her son) when while visiting Mount Thomas, her car (with daughter Daisy inside) is stolen. When Daisy is found, all seems to go well, until she is kidnapped for different reasons, by Barry Baxter, along with her brother, and buried alive. Once recovered, Anna blames the happenings on Tom and they become estranged.

In the final season, (season thirteen), we see Tom, who has "changed" since the bombing (becoming a cold, hard-hearted man) form an almost father-daughter relationship with colleague, Senior Detective Amy Fox. We see him experience immense pain and having to take many different medications before Amy finally convinces him to go to see the doctor. His pain ends up being the result of prostate cancer. He secretly goes to Melbourne (only letting Amy know) to have surgery, but his "adopted" daughter, Constable Kelly O'Rourke (Tom and his family were family friends of the O'Rourke's and became Kelly's father figure after her own policeman father was shot and killed when she was ten), finds out and visits him one night. Kelly, upon arrival back to Mount Thomas, accidentally leaks the information to Tom's superior and enemy, Inspector Russell Falcon-Price, of Tom having prostate cancer. Falcon-Price then takes this as an opportunity to try to get rid of Tom from Mount Thomas once and for all (a task which he has been trying to do for many years). Tom also has to go in for chemotherapy, this which happens in the series finale.

After a numerous series of events, the station is closed down in the finale, and all seems doomed. But before long the station is re-opened, and Tom finally decides (after much convincing from Amy and Kelly) to go to the Croydon Family Reunion his daughter Susan has been trying to invite him too. Here, we see that he makes amends with his daughters.

During various episodes such as Series 1, Episode 14 (Reunion), Tom Croydon can be seen wearing his medals he was awarded during his tour in the Vietnam War.

Vietnam Medal
National Medal for 15 years National Service (Army and Police)
Australian Defence Medal 2006 - Awarded to every past and present member of the Australian Defence Force for 4 years service
Vietnam Campaign Medal (Republic of South Vietnam)
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