Edmund Frederick Du Cane

Du Cane Road in Shepherd's Bush, London is named after Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane. Sir Edmund Frederick Du Cane (23 March 1830 – 7 June 1903) was an English major-general of the Royal Engineers and prison administrator.

Early life Born at Colchester, Essex on 23 March 1830, he was youngest child in a family of four sons and two daughters of Major Richard Du Cane (1788–1832), 20th Light Dragoons; his mother was Eliza, daughter of Thomas Ware of Woodfort, Mallow, County Cork.

After Dedham grammar school to 1843, and a private coaching establishment at Wimbledon (1843–46), he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in November 1846. He passed out at the head of his batch at the end of 1848, having taken first place in mathematics and fortification.

Du Cane received a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 19 December 1848. He joined at Chatham, and in December 1850 was posted to a company of royal sappers and miners commanded by Captain Henry Charles Cunliffe-Owen at Woolwich. He was assistant superintendent of the foreign side of the International Exhibition of 1851, and assistant secretary to the juries of awards.

Works In 1885 Du Cane published in Macmillan's "Citizen" series The Punishment and Prevention of Crime, a historical sketch of British prisons and the treatment of crime. He contributed to periodicals, mainly on penology, and frequently wrote to The Times on military and other subjects. To the Royal Engineers Journal he sent memoirs of several of his brother officers.