Portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Anderson

Joseph Anderson joined the army at the age of fifteen. After seeing action in the Napoleonic Wars he was appointed Major in the 50th Regiment in 1826, and sent to Sydney, New South Wales in 1834. He was appointed penal administrator of the second convict settlement at Norfolk Island between 1834‑1839 and oversaw a harsh regime. He did, however, establish a school on the colony to teach the convicts to read. After serving in India he returned to Australia and settled in South Yarra, where he died in 1877.