In 1871, a boy of twelve was sent away for five years for stealing a tobacco pouch and some cigars. He had already worked down a coal pit, and the reformatory’s register noted a gunshot wound in the back of his leg. So did the reformatory save him, or was the damage already done?

His name was Ephraim Proud. The records follow him into the army, to India and Aden, out again as incorrigible and worthless, through years of fighting the police, and into the workhouse a few miles from where he was born.

This is his story, told through the records he left behind.