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What are the Prisoners’ Photograph Albums?

You can search and download two volumes containing photos and details relating to prisoners in Wandsworth Prison from 1872 to 1873. The volumes which are available are catalogue references PCOM 2/290 and PCOM 2/291.

The prisoners’ photo albums were created because taking a photo of a prisoner made it easier to identify criminals who had been convicted or offenders who went on to commit further crimes. These albums were also important because criminals often used aliases.

The value of photographing prisoners was recognised by the Habitual Criminal Act 1869, which established these registers and the photographing of prisoners. The subsequent Prevention of Crimes Act 1871 stipulated that the photo albums should include all criminals sentenced to one month or more.

Searching the Albums

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You can use our Advanced Search form to search the albums for a first name and last name.

You can also use the other keywords field to search for any of the following:

Alternatively you may wish to browse through the albums.

What could these records help me to discover?

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Each entry gives the prisoner's physical description as well as a photograph, their date and place of birth, the crime they committed, their sentence, the place of conviction, their intended residence after release from prison and often their place of residence before the crime.

What do the records look like?

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To get an idea of what the records look like, have a look at the prison record of Joseph Charman, who was convicted for stealing a tame fowl. He was discharged aged 12 after serving a sentence of six weeks’ hard labour. There is also a note saying ‘5 years ref’, which means he was ordered to serve five years on the Reformatory School Ship Cornwall, which was moored at Purfleet.

The prison record of John Hearn is written on a slightly different type of form. John Hearn was convicted aged 12 for simple larceny under the Juvenile Offenders Act. He had stolen 11 pieces of leather to the value of two shillings and was sentenced to one calendar month hard labour.

Why can't I find an entry?

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DocumentsOnline only holds two volumes of details of prisoners in Wandsworth Prison from 1872 to 1873. These albums include photos of all those sentenced to serve one month or more at Wandsworth prison during this 1872 to 1873 period. If the person you seek served less than one month, you will not find a record here.

The National Archives holds other Wandsworth Prison registers containing one-line entries for each prisoner, for the years 1858 to 1879 (PCOM 2/230-289). The registers for 1879 to 1956 are held at The Metropolitan Archives.

Additionally, The National Archives holds a register of deaths within the prison covering the years 1914 to 1951 (PCOM 2/472).

A list of prison registers and other related sources held at The National Archives are provided in the research guide Tracing 19th and 20th Century Criminals.

Many other prison registers are held in local archives and police museums. You can search for many of them in the National Register of Archives database and Access to Archives database. Please note, many prison registers have not survived.

Further research

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Research guides

Sources for Convicts and Prisoners

Sources for the History of Crime and the Law in England

Tracing 19th and 20th Century Criminals

Books

Criminal Ancestors, David Hawkings, The National Archives, 2009.

Prison, Edward Marston, The National Archives, January 2009.

Tracing Your Ancestors in The National Archives, The National Archives, Amanda Bevan, April 2006.