Charles O’Hara Booth was born on 31 August 1800 in Hampshire, England.

Booth enlisted in the British Army in July 1815. He was made an ensign in the 53rd Regiment in 1816, and subsequently served in Madras for three years.

In 1819, Booth successfully applied for a commission in the 21st Fusiliers. He was promoted to captain in 1830.

Commandant of Port Arthur

Booth in his army uniform.

In 1832, Booth and the 21st Fusiliers left England for then Van Diemen’s Land on the ship Georginia. They arrived in Hobart in February 1833.

Even though Booth had no prior experience with convicts, Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur appointed him as the new commandant of the Port Arthur penal settlement in March.

Despite his lack of experience, Booth proved to be a very good commandant. He was a careful administrator and an innovative planner, as well as an energetic builder.

His treatment of convicts was severe but just. He reportedly treated them all equally, gave his attention to the most trivial cases, and used the cat-of-nine-tails as a last resort.

Port Arthur was extensively laid out during his eleven-year tenure. Reclamation of land was undertaken, a semaphore system was set up, and a government farm was established. He ordered the construction of a convict tramway from Norfolk Island to Oakwood and oversaw the establishment of Point Puer, the first juvenile prison in the British Empire.

Booth’s personal qualities and his administration of Port Arthur received high praise from his contemporaries. Lieutenant-Governor Arthur described him as ‘kind and humane, active and most determined’, and Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin was favourably impressed by his plans at Point Puer.

A sketch of the convict tramway at Port Arthur.

Excerpt of a letter from the Colonial Secretary’s Office to Captain Booth. (9 May 1834)

Lt. Governors recent inspection of the settlement at Port Arthur afforded him ‘perfect satisfaction to observe the result of your zeal for the public service manifested by the general good order and discipline of the station’. He commented on the convicts’ ‘abandonment of all hope of escape’, Booth’s procuring and maintaining his own horse, needed for visiting other stations, requested the extention of the classification system for the prisoners, and observation and espionage — it had been recently detected by this system that some
convict was fabricating base coin — some huts were dilapidated although all were clean and wholesome; the school building alone should give the appearance of comfort; the need for solitary cells.

It was stated that, while His Excellency ‘desires to see nothing like comfort’ he stresses the importance of cleanliness.

Workshops were to be renovated and a chapel to be constructed. H.E. found a greater degree of sickness than he expected; inspection of the bread proved it to be slightly sour and unwholesome, the method of making it should be improved. Boys should have school instruction but not spend an undue proportion of time on it. Convicts’ hair was to be kept short. More vegetables should be grown for food. Grass Tree Hill was less satisfactory.

Marriage

Booth was married Elizabeth Eagle in Hobart on 20 November 1838. They had two daughters together.

Thomas Lempriére, Port Arthur’s commissariat officer between 1833 and 1849, described Elizabeth as “the most perfect beauty I have ever seen.”

Lost in the bush

In 1838, Booth became lost in the bush.

By the time a search party was deployed, he had spent three nights in cold, wet weather. He was frostbitten and weak when he was eventually found.

Later life and death

Booth in later life.

Booth never fully recovered from his ordeal in the bush. He resigned from the army in 1839, but remained at Port Arthur until 1844, when he accepted the less demanding job of superintendent of the Queen’s Orphan School in New Town.

He died of a heart attack on 11 August 1851.

Elizabeth asked the British Army for a widow’s pension, but was refused. She eventually became a school matron and passed away in 1903 at the age of 84.

Fun fact

A portrait of Charles O’Hara Booth is on display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Bibliography