1. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson was an officer in the British Army who was Comptroller-General of Convicts in Western Australia from 1850 to 1863, Home Office Surveyor-General of Prisons from 1863 to 1869, and Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, head of the London Metropolitan Police, from 1869 to 1886.
Edmund Henderson was educated in Bruton, Somerset and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich.
Edmund Henderson was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 6 June 1838 and was promoted First Lieutenant in 1840, Second Captain in 1847, First Captain in 1854, Brevet Major in 1858, and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1862.
Edmund Henderson undertook his professional training at Chatham and was then posted to Canada in 1839.
Edmund Henderson returned to England in 1845 and spent a year in Portsmouth before being posted back to Canada in June 1846.
Edmund Henderson spent the next two years based at Gravesend.
When Western Australia became a penal colony in 1850, Edmund Henderson was appointed the colony's first Comptroller-General of Convicts.
Edmund Henderson travelled to Western Australia with the first convicts on board the Scindian, arriving on 1 June 1850.
Edmund Henderson found the colony completely unprepared for the convicts, lacking even a jail large enough to house them.
Edmund Henderson secured lodging for the convicts at a ware house owned by Captain Scott, the harbour master.
Edmund Henderson then began construction of a place for the warders to stay and in time the Convict Establishment, later known as Fremantle Prison.
Edmund Henderson thought that flogging as a punishment did more harm than good, and might be abolished except in rare cases, and that putting men in chains was useless and aggravating.
Edmund Henderson finally resigned as Comptroller-General of Convicts and left the colony in January 1863.
Edmund Henderson sold his army commission in 1864 and was made a Companion of the Bath in 1868.
In 1869, Edmund Henderson was appointed to succeed Sir Richard Mayne as second sole Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
Edmund Henderson was an ideal compromise candidate between those who wanted a military man as Commissioner and those who thought the job should go to a civilian.
Edmund Henderson was unknown to the British public, allowing him to establish a reputation only on his achievements as Commissioner.
Edmund Henderson clashed with Receiver Maurice Drummond over an increase in pay for his men, a rivalry which was to continue for the rest of his tenure.
Edmund Henderson increased the Detective Branch to over 200 men and started the Habitual Criminals Register.
Edmund Henderson grouped the Divisions into Districts and introduced Schoolmaster Sergeants in each division to increase the literacy of his constables.
Edmund Henderson faced an even more serious situation in 1877, when four senior officers of the Detective Branch were put on trial for corruption, but survived it with his reputation intact.
But, by this stage, Edmund Henderson was starting to lose his control of the force.
Edmund Henderson ignored the fact that the District Superintendents were becoming ineffective and that two of the four posts had fallen vacant.