Brand new research has come to light for St Helena Island! Our discovery has realised that there was a prisoner in St Helena Penal Establishment who was also a convict transported in 1840. Continue reading St Helena Island is NOT a place for convicts… until now.
Is data your thing? Or stories? For me it’s always the story, which is why it’s so amazing that this whole blog post is going to be about data and databases. And I’m going to be seriously enthusiastic about them because we’ve never had digitised data relating to St Helena Penal Establishment in any format that is searchable. And now The St Helena Island Community … Continue reading Is data your thing?
In prison 1st January 1921- 158 prisoners.Received through the year 117. Discharged through the year 186 In prison 31st December 1921 – 89 prisoners. Prisons Department Report – Year ended 31st December 1921 In 1921, The Home secretary, Mr McCormack controlled prisons. Major discussions had been ongoing for years regarding the best way to administer and manage prisoners in Queensland. The final decisions, outlined in … Continue reading ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER ON ST HELENA ISLAND
I think history is like a large jigsaw puzzle – the 5,000 small piece kind. In the box, the puzzle is a jumble of indistinct colours and shapes and there is no clarity. Yet, when you begin to join some pieces together, a picture starts to emerge, and the more pieces that you are able to join together, the clearer the picture is. When researching … Continue reading History is like a box of jigsaw pieces
What did Christmas and New Year Celebrations look like on a prison island? Roast beef and Plum Pudding were a feature of even St Helena Penal Establishment’s Christmas celebrations . Continue reading ‘All I want for Christmas’ at St Helena Penal Establishment.
It IS true that Johnny Lennon was punished for singing in his cell. But this story happened in the prison on St Helena Island in Australia. Read more and see the news article written about his story. Continue reading Johnny Lennon… locked up for singing in his Saint Helena cell
“We could go anywhere, we were only youngsters. We couldn’t go in the stockade, but if there was a warder with you, you could go in. My father’s job…at 9 o’clock at night, he used to go in to the prison and make sure everything was locked up and under control, and I’d go in with him sometimes… we’d go in the front Number 1 … Continue reading ‘We could go anywhere here, we were only youngsters.’ Bob and Fred Murrie.
Strength of character often means having qualities such as resilience, determination, consistency, focus and passion. If this definition is applied to many of the prisoners within the St Helena Penal Establishment, many of them clearly display strength of character. Prisoner Walter O’Hara had all the above qualities, giving him every opportunity in life. I believe if Prisoner Walter O’Hara’s drive, tenacity and determination was … Continue reading Queensland’s Ned Kelly imprisoned at St Helena Island
Walter O’Hara seemed destined for a life of crime from his early years. He is understood to have spent 6 or 7 years at the Lytton Boys Reformatory and had previously been an inmate at the Nudgee institution for a short time. During his 1889 criminal trial, he stated that it was “his intention to outrival the doings of Ned Kelly, as he was convinced … Continue reading Queensland’s Ned Kelly
St Helena Penal Establishment – Misdemeanors and Punishments 12 April 1870: Attempted escape. Punishment: James McPherson, Ross and Dyball were given 1 month’s solitary confinement while Howard, Gray and Devitt were given 25 lashes. 8 3 It seemed that James McPherson and his fellow escapees were to be punished in a way that would send a strong message to all other would-be escapees. … Continue reading The Wild Scotchman Part 2
