Edmund Frederick Du Cane

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A further responsibility of the 1865 Act was to make arrangements for additional prisonaccommodation required by the imminent abolition of penal transportation.Still only 39 years of age Du Cane succeeded Edmund Henderson, in 1869, as Chairmanof the Board of Directors of Convict Prisons, Surveyor-General of Prisons, and Inspector-General of Military Prisons. The same year saw the changes in the colonial convict prisonsystem which responsibility was transferred to Du Cane.An advocate of using prison labour for public works, Du Cane authorised Convicts tocarry out works on various defence installations, including the breakwater, at Portlandand the docks at both Portsmouth and Chatham as well as using this Labour Force tobuild additional prison accommodation including London’s Wormwood Scrubs prisonwhich was built to Edmund Du Cane’s design and specification.Work began at ‘The Scrubs’ late 1874 with the construction of a small prison made fromcorrugated iron alongside a temporary shed to which served as a barracks for theWarders, by a small group of prisoners each of them within a year of their release. Thisinitial construction was then used to accommodate 50 more prisoners who erected anadditional temporary prison wing before, then, being employed to manufacture bricks atthe site. By the summer of 1875, enough bricks had been made to begin building theprison's first block, it’s ground floor having been completed by the year’s end.HMP Wormwood ScrubsBy now promoted through the ranks to that of Brevet-Colonel, signifying rank in theBritish Army overall, but not within a Regiment, Du Cane oversaw the implementation ofthe 1877 Prison Act under which all prisons came under direct government control, therules governing their administration standardised and staff co-ordinated into a singlePrison Service with a regular system of promotion.The cost of maintaining the prison system was largely reduced as a consequence, as was,in short time, the overall number of prisons. A more progressive system of discipline wasintroduced and assistance offered to the discharged prisoner in finding gainfulemployment on release.Additionally Du Cane inaugurated the formal registration of criminals, overseeing theproduction of the first "Black Book" list; printed using convict labour, the register listed
over 12,000 habitual criminals recording their known aliases and descriptions. Thisregister was soon expanded to record criminal’s distinctive body marks.Benefiting from the knowledge and support of renowned polymath Sir Francis Galton,Du Cane proposed that types of feature in different kinds of criminality were worthy ofscientific study, in the process, encouraging Galton’s exploration of a technique knownas Composite Portraiture whereby multiple photographic portraits of individual’s imageswere superimposed so as to assist with the identification of ‘typical’ criminal faces.Although this particular technique did not prove overly useful Du Cane also encouragedthe use of Galton's finger print system in the identification of criminals. Galton had beenintroduced to the possibilities of using fingerprints in this way by his half-cousin CharlesDarwin, a friend of Henry Faulds who had first proposed the forensic potential of SirWilliam Herschel’s exploration of the concept of using fingerprints as a method ofidentification in the 1860s. Galton went on to create the first scientific footing for thestudy which, in due course, led to its acceptance by the Courts. Galton estimated theprobability of two persons having the same fingerprint and classified those prints intoeight broad categories: 1: plain arch, 2: tented arch, 3: simple loop, 4: central pocketloop, 5: double loop, 6: lateral pocket loop, 7: plain whorl, and 8: accidental, a systemthat still maintains.Sir Francis GaltonHaving married his second wife Florence Saunderson (widow formerly Grimston) at StMargaret’s Church, Westminster January 1883 and been raised to the honorary rank ofMajor-General, Edmund Du Cane CB, KCB retired from the army December 1887, andfrom the civil service in March 1895. Construction of Wormwood Scrubs Prison had beencompleted in 1891 and the road on which it was located named Du Cane Road.Edmund Du Cane died at his residence in London’s Portman Square June 7th 1903, aged73, and was buried in Great Braxted churchyard Essex, close to the estate purchased in1751 by Peter Du Cane of nearby Coggeshall, a wealthy cloth merchant, High Sheriff andMember of Parliament descended from Huguenot ancestors by the name of 'DuQuesne'.With thanks to Andy Rayner and https://sappers-minerswa.com(c) 2022 Dover Tales for The Land Trust
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Edmund Frederick Du Cane

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