Alexander Maconochie (penal reformer)
| Alexander Maconochie | |
|---|---|
| Born |
11 February 1787 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 25 October 1860 (aged 73) Morden, Surrey, England |
| Resting place |
St Lawrence Church, Morden, Surrey 51°23′32.1″N 0°12′15.11″W / 51.392250°N 0.2041972°W |
| Occupation | Naval officer |
| Known for | Penal reform in Australia and the United Kingdom |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1803-1815 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
Alexander Maconochie (11 February 1787 – 25 October 1860) was a British naval officer, geographer, and penal reformer.
In 1840, Maconochie became the Governor of Norfolk Island, a prison island where convicts were treated with severe brutality and were seen as lost causes. Upon reaching the island, Maconochie immediately instituted policies that restored dignity to prisoners, achieving remarkable success in prisoner rehabilitation. These policies were well in advance of their time and Maconochie was politically undermined. His ideas would be largely ignored and forgotten, only to be readopted as the basis of modern penal systems over a century later in the mid to late 20th century.
Maconochie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 11 February 1787. At the age of 9, his father died and he was raised by Allan Maconochie, later Lord Meadowbank.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1803 and as a midshipman saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of Lieutenant,. In 1811 he was serving on the Brig HMS Grasshopper, which was captured Christmas Eve off the coast of the Dutch Coast. He was taken as a prisoner of war and was released upon Napoleon's abdication in 1814. He returned to active service in the British-American War where he commanded HMS Calliope. In 1815, he was promoted to the rank of Commander.
In the peace following the final defeat of Napoleon, Maconochie spent 13 years in Edinburgh studying geography and geopolitics. At this time he wrote extensively on steam navigation and the colonisation of the Pacific. He married in 1822. In 1828 he moved to London, England where he was a founder and first secretary of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. In 1833 became the first professor of Geography at the University College London, and was a knight of the Royal Guelphic Order.
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