'Major H' - the life and times of a Victorian Convict Prison governor

The life and times of Major Robert John Fayrer Hickey, who was Deputy Governor at both Poland and Dartmoor convict prisons and subsequently Governor of Dartmoor prison for a period of just under two years in the early 1870s. It chronicles the contemporary record which reflect Hickey's work and character and investigates both his life and times, with his career being seen as typical for that of a governor of a convict prison, ex-military with many years of experience at running tightly disciplined unit of men. It discusses many of the problems faced by such individuals, how to govern and maintain order over a body of often ill-disciplined, fractious and disparate group of offenders. It also mentions the success and failures of Hickey within the wider context of a relatively new prison regime and that of penal servitude within a convict prison.