Figure 1.--Here we have a photograph of Pinn Bickle. All we know about him was that he was convicted of a crime in England. We do not have any details about his crime or his sentence.

Here we have a photograph of Pinn Bickle. All we know about him was that he was convicted of a crime in England. We do not have any details about his crime or his sentence. Our information on how children were treated in the English criminal justice system is incompledte. We are unsure when facilities like borstals, sprecizalized facilities for children first zappeared. Many boys this age were deported to Australia or other colonies. More than likely it would have been something like theft. He looks about 12 or 13 years old. We are not sure when the photograph was taken, but would guess it was the late 19th century. A reader writes, "I have no way of dating this image beyond the clothes - such photos were taken from the 1860s onwards." HBC would guess that this portrait may have been taken in the 1880s. We are not sure, but the boy here may be wearing a prison uniform. Note that his hair has not been cut short as was the case in some prisons. The white numbered card was for the purpose of the photograph. Also note that he is wearing a black badge hung from hids right shoulder. This badge he would have worn in the prison to identify him. A HBC reader writes, "I haven't noted the black badge in other photographs of the so-called child criminals. These pictures were usually taken on arrest at the police station rather than conviction, but most of them were kids holding their names up chalked onto slates - not ones like this. Maybe this was on arrival to prison? A guess."

Created: 7:05 AM 1/23/2005
Last edited: 7:05 AM 1/23/2005