ABSTRACT
In 1863 the Royal Commission on penal servitude and transportation was established. The Chairmanship of the Directorate of Convict Prisons was the platform from which Du Cane gave his opinion on important criminal and penal issues. While Carnarvon rose easily to local and national power and acclaim, Edmund Du Cane was making his way in the closed world of convict imprisonment, wherein, by means of talent, hard work and good luck, he would rise to the supreme position in English penal administration. Born on 23 March 1830, Edmund Du Cane was the youngest child of a military family with landed connections. An officer of Huguenot descent, his father died when Edmund was only 2 years old. His mother’s Anglo-Irish family also had a military tradition. Du Cane’s interests were at one with his education and career. He was a good draughtsman and more than competent watercolourist, and pursued topics in archaeology and architecture, as well as Napoleonic literature.
