Augustus Prinsep (1803 - 1830)

Augustus Prinsep

Augustus Prinsep was a British civil servant, artist and writer.

Immediately after graduating from Haileybury College young Augustus went to India, in Calcutta, and from 1822 worked there as a clerk in the East India Company. Later, trying to cure himself of tuberculosis, Prinsep took a sea voyage to Australia, describing his experiences in his diary and letters to his wife. He reached Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in September 1829 via Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). Prinsep's health failed to improve, however, and he died at sea.

His widow, Elizabeth Prinsep, having collected all her husband's notes and sketches, published on their basis the Journal of a Voyage from Calcutta to Van Diemen's Land (1833), adding her own drawings as well. Prinsep's illustrations and descriptions have historical value as evidence of personal observation and also have artistic merit as one of the few first pictorial works devoted to Australia.