John Croaker: Convict Embezzler

Croaker was born in Kent in 1788 and became principle clerk at the local bank. For fiddling with the accounts, he got 14 years in Australia. His arrival coincided with the foundation of the Bank of New South Wales, and Croaker set up its bookkeeping procedures. Later his interest turned to brewing, farming and malting. He died after a shipwreck on the coast of Chile. This biography is dryly humorous and a thoroughly good read.

"John Croaker was born in humble but respectable circumstances in Canterbury, Kent, and became principal clerk at the Isle of Thanet Bank in Margate. This might have been the sum total of his life's achievements if he hadn't begun fiddling the bank's accounts. After absconding to Calais in 1815 with stolen assets, he was convicted of embezzling the proceeds of a bill of exchange, and transported to New South Wales for fourteen years." Croaker's career generates a succession of interesting issues. His involvements in banking, brewing and the law have allowed John Booker and Russell Craig to use him as a window on the economic, judicial and social conditions of his age, both in England and in New South Wales.

John Booker is group archivist for Lloyds TSB Group, plc, in London. He is the author of several books including Temples of Mammon: the Architecture of Banking and eight commissions for The New Dictionary of National Biography. Russell Craig is a professor of accounting at the Australian National University. He is the coauthor of several books, including Keeping Employees Informed and articles on Australian accounting history in the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Abacus, and Australian CPA.