Sir Edmund Du Cane
DU CANE, Edmund Frederick KCB RE (1830 - 1903)
Edmund Frederick Du Cane was born at Colchester, England on March 23, 1830. He was the youngest son of Major Richard Du Cane and his wife, Eliza Du Cane (nee Ware). His father died in 1832.
Du Cane attended Dedham Grammar School, Essex and in 1843, at the age of thirteen, was sent to study under Major Horton at Wimbledon for coaching for a military career. He passed the entrance examination for the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and in January 1846 became a cadet there.
In 1848 Du Cane graduated at the head of his group with first place in mathematics and fortification. His initial posting was as a second lieutenant with the Royal Engineers at Chatham and then Woolwich. In 1850 he was appointed assistant superintendent of the foreign side of the Great Exhibition of 1851 which he described as being 'very agreeable' and bringing him into contact with many 'notable people'. His career took a very different turn when he was asked to travel to the Swan River Colony.
In September 1851 Du Cane left Gravesend on the sailing ship Anna Robertson as one of sixteen cabin passengers, with a further 210 passengers in steerage or whom 65 were sappers and miners. The ship arrived off Fremantle on December 17, 1851 and passengers were required to stay on board for a further six days due to whooping cough affecting six children. On disembarking Du Cane went straight to a ball at Government House.
Governor Fitzgerald was impressed by Lieutenant Du Cane and, wishing him to get an understanding of the Colony, on January 14, 1852 Du Cane was part of an expedition with the Governor to Champion Bay and Port Gregory. On his return in February 1852, Du Cane was stationed at Guildford, in charge of the Eastern Districts of York and Toodyay. Du Cane had both sappers and ticket of leave men stationed at York and Toodyay, and was tasked with road building, well sinking, and construction of public buildings.
The most important structure built by Du Cane was the Guildford Bridge across the Swan River. It was completed in 1854 using the plans of an American railway bridge.
On February 17, 1854, Du Cane was promoted to First Lieutenant. On July 18, 1855 Du Cane married, at St John’s Church Fremantle, Mary Dorothea Molloy, second daughter of Captain John Molloy.
Examples of the types of buildings Du Cane constructed are shown in an 1856 map of Guildford.
Du Cane was recalled to fight in the Crimean War and sailed from Western Australia with his wife on the Esmerelda on February 25, 1856. Du Cane arrived in England to find the Crimean War had ended. He spent the next seven years engaged in work on new defences for the dockyards and naval bases in England including new land based works at Dover, and the chain of land forts at Plymouth. He was promoted second captain on 16 April 1858.
In 1863, on the recommendation of his previous commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Henderson, who had become Chairman of the Board of Directors of convict prisons, Du Cane was appointed Director of Convict Prisons, as well as an inspector of military prisons. He administered the system of penal servitude as it was reformed by the Prisons Act of 1865 and made the arrangements for additional prison accommodation consequent on the abolition of transportation in 1867. In 1869 Du Cane succeeded Henderson as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Convict Prisons, Surveyor General of Prisons, and Inspector General of Military Prisons.
Du Cane established a National School for Cooking in 1873, and he received the awards of the CB in 1873 and the KGB in 1877 for his work in penology. His published writings include The punishment and prevention of crime, London, 1885 amongst over thirty five articles on topics ranging from jarrah to locusts.
Du Cane retired from the army with the honorary rank of Major General on December 31, 1887, and from the civil service on 23 March 1895. An accomplished man of wide interests, embracing archaeology, architecture, and Napoleonic literature, he was a clever painter in water colours.
Du Cane’s first wife, Dorothea died on May 13, 1881. Together they had raised three sons and five daughters in their Surrey home. On January 2, 1883 Du Cane married Florence Victoria Grimston, the widow of Colonel Grimston.
Du Cane died at his house in Portman Square, London on June 7, 1903.
References:
Alexandra Hasluck, Royal Engineer, a life of Sir Edmund Du Cane, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1973
Peter Conole and Diane Oldman, The Stormy Petrel, Edmund Du Cane of the Royal Engineers, Western Ancestor, June 2016
Sean McConville, English Local Prisons 1860 1900: Next only to Death, Routledge, London, 1995
Phillipa O’Brien, Edmund Du Cane, Five Fortunate Years, Early Days Number 101, Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 2017
https://sappers-minerswa.com/of-interest/convict-hiring-depots/guildford-convict-depot/https://sappers accessed December 9, 2019
