Captain Oswald Every
(1835-1892)
4 April 1861

Volume 3, page 43, sitting number 2872. 

Captain Oswald William Every served in several different regiments. At the time that he sat for Silvy, he was a Captain in the 75th (Sterlingshire) Regiment of Foot. He was later Governor of Dartmoor Prison. 

On 3 June 1862 at St John's Church in Richmond he married Cecilia Charlotte Burney, daughter of Henry Charles Burney, a 'Doctor of Law.' Their marriage produced four sons and four daughters. Following the death of his first wife in 1882, Oswald married secondly on 22 September 1885 Florence Amy Sherwin, daughter of William Sherwin. This second marriage produced a further three sons. 

According to Boase's Modern English Biography (1891): Oswald William Every was 'Born 26 June 1835; educated Cheltenham; ensign 6th Foot 26 August 1853; lieutenant 90th Foot 2 February 1855, captain 30 October 1857; captain 75th Foot 22 November 1861, sold out 21 August 1866; served in Crimean War 1855 and Indian mutiny 1857-58; in charge of depot at Gibraltar 1870-75; deputy governor Millbank prison 1876-78 and of Wormwood Scrubs 1878-80; governor of Dartmoor prison 1880 to death. Died Dartmoor prison 26 January 1892.'

He left effects valued at £1192. 

[The sitter's brother Sir Henry Every visited Silvy's studio a month later, and then a month after that his sister-in-law, Lady Every.]