[Portrait of Colonel Rupert Barber Deering, ca. 1840]

ML 1363

fonds

ca. 1840

Graphic Materials, Drawings

1302383

1 drawing - pastel - visible image 36.5 x 30.5 cm., in frame 53 x 46.5 cm

Rupert Barber Deering, born in Dublin 1815, served in the 99th Regiment of Foot in the British Army. He became an ensign in 1837 and two years later was promoted to Lieutenant.

In July 1849 Deering sailed from Chatham to Hobart on board the Adelaide in command of transported convicts. He was made Captain in June 1849 and Major in 1858. From January to September 1853, he served as the last Lieutenant Colonel Governor of the Norfolk Island Penal Settlement. In this posting Deering replaced the notorious John Price. Deering supervised the closure of the gaol on Norfolk Island and oversaw the transfer of prisoners and guards to Port Arthur in Tasmania.

Following his posting in Norfolk Island Deering moved with the regiment to New Zealand where he took part in the New Zealand Wars. In 1857, after the regiment had returned to the British Isles and were stationed in Ireland, he married Helena Perry. By 1868 Deering was serving in the 7th Dept. Battalion at Winchester. He died at Portsea in Hampshire in 1891.

References:
Hart’s Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List. London : John Murray, 1840
Australian Dictionary of Biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/ (accessed 10 September 2015)
Library correspondence file

Through family descent Reference: R.G. Watkins, Catalogue sixty-nine, Summer 2014. http://www.rgwatkins.co.uk/cat69.pdf (accessed 10 September 2015)

Pastel portrait of Rupert Barber Deering in walnut frame depicting the sitter at three quarter length in military uniform with a cape over one shoulder and sword at the side.

Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Unknown artist

Inscribed on back of frame:

Colonel Rupert Barker Deering, born 19th November 1815, married Helena Perry October 1857 issue. Nelly, Jane
son of John Deering and Harriet Armstrong

Possibly painted at the time of Deering's promotion to Lieutenant in 1840