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Issue 81 Autumn 2019
Please send Letters to: Roger Outram, 12 Grove Park, Magazine Lane, Wisbech, PE13 1LF
E-mail: roger@rsoutram.co.uk
Other contact: Telephone 01945 582624
Dear Colleagues,
Once more this has been a sparse quarter for direct correspondence for the Letters section of the Newsletter but thankfully there has been some communication that I am pleased to share with you all. The letters section has been, as it should be, a popular section of the newsletter and even though I know it's an effort to put pen to paper, for we of advancing years and failing memories, I know that there are still tales to tell and opinions that need to be shared so come on just drop me a line.
We start with a letter sent in by a regular correspondent John Berry.
A view from the other side(s).
No, I am not dead yet. Nor am I planning to join that ‘other side’ in the immediate future – as far as I am aware!! But I thought that having now been retired for over 12 years (a mere child in relation to some retired colleagues) that I would reflect upon what retirement has brought so far.
I spend the first 10 years working part-time as an Assistant Director for IPRS, a Physiotherapy Company and thoroughly enjoyed the change and challenges it brought. It was great to be able to use all those skills we gain as Governors, which remain unknown to the general public and companies generally. It was a relatively easy transition considering that IPRS had a number of contracts with the Civil Service and so I understood the world they worked in rather well having spent 31 years in the civil service as a prison governor. We also had contracts with the Armed Forces and again my RAF service was helpful in understanding the language and the world they worked in.
At the same time I decided that I needed to do some unpaid voluntary work and having had a son who was seriously injured in Afghanistan whilst on operations as a Captain with the Royal Irish Regiment I joined the East Midlands Veterans and pensions advisory committee with a specific interest in those ex-service personnel who ended up in prison. I was also approached to become a Magistrate and have been one for the last 10 years, now specialising in family work because I was also approached to join the IMB at HMP Leicester. It was a bit difficult in the early days to have sentenced somebody and then see him in the prison on my next visit. There was never any ill-feeling but it did not seem appropriate, so I switched over to becoming a full-time family magistrate and the first person I met was a prisoner from HMP Leicester challenging a child arrangement order. You just can’t win!
Having young grandchildren, I decided that I really should get up-to-date with primary school education and so joined a primary school as a school governor. After 4 years we converted to become an Academy and now I am a Director of Scholars Academy in Oadby.
Approaching my second retirement from IPRS, a retired Air Vice Marshall who was also a Magistrate sounded me out as to my interest in becoming a Mental Health Act manager. He as the Deputy Chairman of our local Mental Health Act Trust and was looking to recruit a small number of independent mental health act managers to replace a few who had retired. I reduced my hours with IPRS, applied and was accepted. Since then I have expanded the groups I work for and now cover two Trusts including Notts NHS Trust, which covers Rampton Hospital (High Security) and Arnold Lodge (Medium security) and three private hospitals. The work is fascinating and whilst it is not well paid it certainly very worthwhile and is something I hope to continue with for a few more years. A recent report undertaken by Sir Simon Wessely recommended that Managers panels are eliminated in favour of Tribunals; as they will cost an average of six times as much as a managers panel we may be retained. Anyway with Brexit, which government department has time to take any other legislation forward at the moment?
So I guess I can say that I have now undertaken the Trinity of a Prison Governor. Magistrate and IMB member. Retirement is great and with only a few health problems (so far) I am looking forward to my next 12 years in retirement.
As an aside, it was great to hear from Peter Quinn in the last newsletter. Hopefully we can hear more from him in the future. Two old Glossopians contributing; that must be a group or maybe a ‘Glum of Glossopians’ might be appropriate. If you have ever been to Glossop on a rainy day you will understand the collective noun.
John Berry OBE JP
Followed by a welcome e-mail from Judy Gibbons with a request to pass on her contact details to Kate Warburton which I was pleased to do.
To: roger@rsoutram.co.uk
Roger,
I was so pleased to hear Kate's good news and what she has been doing since she left Styal Prison where I first knew her. I would be grateful if you could give her my regards and email address if she would like to catch up - even maybe, on Antarctica!
Since leaving Styal I was posted to P4 Division and then to Holloway. I left the Prison Service in 1973 and went to Oxford Brookes University leaving to become a Social Worker working with Oxfordshire Social Services as both a social worker and latterly Assistant Divisional Director in Residential Care and Child Care in Oxford City.
Then was appointed Divisional Director for Eastern Wiltshire based in Swindon. In retirement, I was Vice-Chair of Wiltshire Health Authority for 7 years and have also been Chair of three local charities in the Wantage area since retiring and am still Chair of one local charity. Throughout this time I kept in touch with Joanna Kozubska, who sadly died in 2017. At Joanna's funeral the women Governors were well represented. It was, even in those circumstances, lovely to meet up again as in our days the women governors were a small group and we all knew each other well.
Many thanks and kind regards
Judy [Gibbons]
The following is a contribution from Bob Duncan who continues to maintain contact with many of his friends and former colleagues and happily is willing to share his communications with us all and also with those others of us who contribute to or just enjoy the read of this newsletter.
I attended the wedding of Kit Jarman and Kate Lomas in March at the college chapel of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford on a beautiful spring day. A lovely setting for such an event and the organ music played by the Senior Organ Scholar, Ceri Ngai, was fabulous, particularly The Postlude, Le F’ebure –We’ly : Sortie in E flat, which made you feel alive with plenty of ‘get up and go’; a bonus with the age of the majority of those attending. An excellent buffet was served in one of the college halls, only slightly marred by innumerable speeches by Kit; he appears to have grown to like his own voice and being as seen as present and in charge. Kit has though given up his flat in Oban, and they have sold the Kaye’s house in Barby and bought a bungalow in Kilsby, not far from where Kate has always lived.
John Sandy reminds me that with all the other activities he has been or still is involved in, that he forgot to mention that he has also been Mayor of Waverly Borough Council in 2000/2001, Millennium Year. Waverly is the largest Borough in Surrey. (I wonder what John thinks of Boris as our possible Prime Minister, as it is still up in the air as I write this,).
Sad to hear the news re Denis Marsden, Ray Revely, Roland Adams, Peter Leonard and Graham Gregory Smith. I never served with Denis, but we did share a training course together. He joined the Service in October 1966 and served, amongst others at Deerbolt, Parkhurst, Featherstone and Wandsworth. He also from memory served for a period in the West Indies. He was a very good colleague and gentleman. He would have been 90 in September, so had a good innings.
I served with Peter Leonard at Wellingborough, and were landed sadly with turning it from a Borstal into a Young Offender Prison – what a headache, no one in the establishment except the Admin Officer and my myself knew how to calculate sentence release dates! I had, along with my gifted partner, Danny Ozanne, done so many at Liverpool in our time together, we could do them in our sleep. It also meant that all discipline staff came out of civilian clothing and into uniform. I think we were able to sustain the traditions of the Borstal system for a while, but gradually the whole ethos changed, and what had developed so gloriously from that vital decision to turn Rochester Prison into the first Borstal, was abandoned by the whim of some senior civil servant and the Home Secretary. As you might gather from later in the Jottings, Hugh Kenyon would have been ‘turning in his grave.’
Roland Adams retired to South Wales and was very kind to Marjorie Taylor after her husband Bill Taylor died in post while Governor of Usk. Marjorie was a family friend and we often visited her. When in her 80’s she still played the organ at the Borstal for the Sunday Church Service. She would be collected in the prison van and taken back home. Naturally, she always took her handbag which contained the house keys. On one occasion she picked up her Roberts Radio which was not dissimilar to her handbag, clearly, the van driver was too polite to say anything, so it did not come to light until she was returned home. Panic! But no, within a few minutes the van driver had managed to force open a window, climbed in and opened the door for Marjorie. A good thing Usk was not a big crime area. I would meet up with Roland every so often, he too had Governed Pentonville and loved to talk about it, and felt very sad it seemed to have deteriorated. We also spoke on the phone and he would help anybody he could. He was always a pleasure to talk to and he was a gentleman in the full sense of the word.
Paul Wailen was back in reasonable health, though he is still having eye treatment. He still loves to travel to foreign climes; he was in Malta in early March (weather dreadful!) but hotel superb and getting around to visit all the historical sites on the wonderful public transport system. He is currently undertaking the Pilgrims Way to Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. But being a modern Pilgrim he is doing it by car. Unfortunately, he is not feeling well again and is waiting to see his consultant. He was to visit us this month, that will now clearly be delayed.
Graham Gregory Smith
I was able to attend Graham’s thanksgiving funeral service on the 8th of July at St George’s Church in the beautiful Kent village of Wrotham. I was a little saddened that there was no one else there from the Service, but we are an ageing group and travel is no longer as easy as it used to be. But Susan had a number of kind letters from people they had served with.
We had both commenced our new careers at Dover Borstal, Graham in 1968 and me in 1965, though I had been seconded to Southampton University when Graham commenced there, under the rather eccentric Frank Liesching. We were, though to meet up later at Scrubs where we were both quartered in the large houses running along the prison wall, where his daughters and my 2 children used to meet up in the passageway separating us from the wall.
Graham always had to go 3 months ahead of us on each posting, so went to Chelmsford in June 1973. Our daughter, Elizabeth was one and a half years old, and we followed in August. (We always seemed to move on August Bank Holiday.) Our Governor at Chelmsford was Mike Selby. He and his wife Jane and children became great friends to this day. He also had been at the same school as Graham so had a lot in common. Michael went on to do great things at Grendon Underwood and was responsible for a lot of innovation. We also knew Rannoch and Evelyn Daly, and were to meet up again later at Scrubs”.
Mike has written a personal letter to Susan about their time together, and Susan has kindly let me print it. It is important because it reveals so clearly the real leadership and perceptive qualities that Graham possessed and how he could be relied upon in a crisis.
On promotion to AG1 in 1976 Graham was posted to Wormwood Scrubs where they met amongst other such captivating colleagues, Brian Dodsworth (chaplain), John Morrison, John and Mary Staples, Colin and Lucille Scott, Brian Ritchie, Paul and Frances Wailen, Derrick and Glenys Dean, Kelvin Wyatt, Sid Malcolm (Chief Officer), and Eric Sibley. Norman Honey was the Governor.
Graham was in charge of what everyone called D Wing, which was the long sentence wing including a high number of Category A prisoners; and as such Scrubs was part of the ‘dispersal system.’ It was the only wing where a certain number of the prisoners’ dined out at the main meals. From memory ‘table 4’ was identified as the focus of the ring leaders. It was being monitored as closely as possible.
I was posted to Scrubs as Deputy Governor with a joining date of Monday 3rd September. On my preliminary visit, the outgoing Dep. had alerted me to the fact that there were rumbling from a certain faction in D Wing. The ‘riot’ took place on the Friday 31st August 1979 and was contained and the wing brought back under staff control. The next day over 60 prisoners complained sick and alleged that their injuries were as a result of the ‘riot’, implying staff brutality. This resulted in a Regional Director‘s investigation. After several months of this hanging over all the staff, the Regional Director referred it to the police. This raised the tension amongst staff. Graham was named as allegedly assaulting a prisoner. I was not aware of this at the time. I was not present for any of the riot, yet I was summoned by the police for an interview, which was distinctly unfriendly and lasted 2.5 hours. It was clear to me that they had an agenda and were seeking to lay culpability with senior management. When I pointed out I was not at the prison that night, they would say ‘As an experienced Governor, what is your assessment on how the event was handled, was it in the guidelines laid down by Headquarters?
Anxiety overall this rose amongst staff generally. As expected there was clear proof that Graham was not even in that part of the wing where the prisoner alleged he was attacked. It was also clear that different prisoner factions were settling old scores amongst themselves. It did not help that the Governor was not coping with all this very well. I would get a knock on my quarter each evening for several weeks about 7 pm or so, and Norman would politely say, 'Bob, can we talk over some aspects of the riot I need to get it clearer in my head.' I, of course, was just a sounding board. Despite the pressure on Graham he never became neither angry nor embittered but was a bit more cautious and reserved. The Regional Director’s Inquiry Report into the Incident was ordered to be published by the House of Commons and appeared on the 23 February 1982. That was almost two and a half years after the incident, but it did have to await the outcome of the Police Investigation, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring a prosecution of assaulting an inmate by any member of staff.
Willy Whitelaw, then Home Secretary, had agreed to come to the Prison and address a full staff meeting re the outcome. He kept his word and came; he outlined as above but was only cautiously received by staff generally. That was though was the formal end of the whole sorry and harrowing saga. The Governor by the time the Home Secretary came was John McCarthy, John asked me to join him in his office to greet Willy. On arrival, after introduction, John said ‘would you like a drink, Sir ‘Willie’s eyes twinkled and he responded. ‘A pink gin would go down well.’ There was a bit of spluttering from John before he replied, ‘We are a bit of a dry house here, I really meant a tea or coffee!’
Some years later Governor’s Conference was held at Liverpool University, Willy Whitelaw was a speaker. Catering arrangements were not good, and we were spending longer in the bar whilst dinner was being prepared. Willy wandered over to me and said hello, he must have remembered me from Scrubs. We chattered generally; I then could not resist asking him that as Margaret Thatcher was out of the country and he was therefore technically ‘in charge’ how he had got away from London midweek. He chuckled and said ‘You do not tell the Prime Minister everything so that she cannot always find one, and this is to my advantage I am more than halfway home to my house in the Lake District and can have a long weekend with the family. If there is a desperate need my secretary will find me.’
The other anecdote relating to the riot occurred a year later. The Security Department was in an office next to mine and I passed them on my way in and we always exchanged greetings. They also had a stilted sense of humour and liked to know as much as possible about the senior staff. I remember they sent me a Christmas card on my Birthday and thought it was very humorous. A year later on the morning of 31st August, they just said ‘Happy Anniversary’; I stopped, pondered, and said, ‘I did not know you knew the date of my wedding Anniversary’. 'We do not,' they said, 'we are talking about the riot.'
At a later date on a Saturday morning, Graham was the in-charge Governor. I was at home, but Jane and the children had gone shopping. Graham phoned me to advise he believed we had a hostage situation. We talked it over and I agreed to come in and check the situation with him. It was as he described and we set up the command post as required and advised Headquarters. There had been little training up to then, and the Headquarters support role was rather perfunctory, and in our case did not work at all for reasons I won’t dwell on. Little did we know that this was to be the longest hostage incident to date, lasting 5 days. After 24 hours, Ron Curtis joined us saying he had been sent as a hostage situation adviser as there was no one else available: but said he had no detailed brief about what he was supposed to do but would assist in any way possible! After 2 days the army was called to assist and in particular to use their equipment in order to drill camera access to the cell to give us vision and the layout of what was going on in the cell as there 4 perpetrators and one hostage. They assured us that it would not take long and the prisoners would not be aware of what was happening. They were wrong on both counts, it took over 12 hours to penetrate the thick cell walls of Scrubs, and at breakthrough and camera displayed the inside of the cell, we saw 10 seconds of the cell layout and then a piece of wood circling in the air before it smashed the camera. At least we had seen the scenario briefly, which helped.
The Governor was away, and despite a direction by the Regional Director to return, he declined to do so. Graham and I saw the incident through to its conclusion.
At about lunchtime, on the Saturday the phone rang in the command post and Graham answered it, I heard him say, ’No Jane you cannot speak to Bob, we have an incident, and he is very busy.’ A few minutes later it rang again, later I learnt the gist of it which was, ‘Just listen Graham, I understand Bob is in the Prison but there is a Rugby International this afternoon, I just need to know if Bob will home in time to watch it, or do I have to record it. If I do not get a decision, your life will be a misery.’ Jane got an answer.
Graham was posted to P2 Division at Headquarters in May 1982, and with the qualities outlined by Mike, got on with his career. In 1983 he was posted to Aldington Young Offenders, choosing to give his children some time away from ‘living on the wall’. Robin Stratford-Tuke was the Governor and Phil French the Deputy. Phil died last year, having been in a home for 4 years, but his wife Pauline is still living in Aldington in a J type.
In 1987 Graham took charge of Maidstone Prison as a Governor 2 with John Whetton as his deputy. In 1990 he was promoted to Governor 1 and spent a further period at headquarters, and was involved in overseeing the removable of the prisoners out of Manchester after the riot. He also undertook some inspection visits including the Verne, Albany, Latchmere House and Blantyre. (Graham’s eldest sister served for a time at East Sutton Park). From there in 1994 he took charge of Birmingham Prison from where he retired in 1998. He had a flat in Birmingham and commuted arriving home in Aldington (where he had purchased the Governor’s quarter) on Friday evening and returning on Sunday lunchtime. That lasted for 4 years and which Susan found was quite hard graft for them both.
Susan concludes that Graham found it quite hard to settle from commanding a large establishment like Birmingham to just her! He tried the CAB but it did not suit him to be managed after all those years, and he found the answer as a Caseworker for SSAFA, which suited him perfectly, and as always, he was just as good and respected as instanced by four representatives being at the Thanksgiving. It was my privilege and pleasure to meet up with the now ‘extended Graham Gregory-Smith family’ especially all the grandchildren. They have all turned out to be able, friendly and sociable, and are a credit to Graham and Susan for the values they instilled in their offspring. The day was sad yet also a happy occasion celebrating a life well-lived.
Roger and I remain grateful to Brendan O’Friel for his wise and continuous support of the Newsletter. He has on this occasion contributed to three inclusions - Obituary for Roland Adams, Obituary note for Tom Rielly included as separate Articles; and an answer to an issue outlined below.
Hugh Kenyon was attracted to the Prison Service by the magnetism of Alexander Paterson’s personality and his belief that Borstals and Open Prisons could be used to form and reform character, so he joined the service in April 1934 as Borstal Housemaster, his first posting was to North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire. He rose through the ranks and in the late ’50s was appointed to the Prison Commission. When they were young his children only knew that he had an important job in London, as he caught a train each workday to commute there. In September 1967 he returned from London and declared that it was it he would be going no more from tonight. At the time they thought no more of it, other than they would see more of their father.
They as a family had clearly remained in the NSC area and had begun to ask themselves why he had so suddenly resigned. They feared there might have been some sinister implications to it. They were unable to unravel the ‘mystery. The daughter later developed cancer, received treatment and it went into recession; but then returned. Her brother felt if she had a project it would help take her mind off the illness. He suggested she might devote her energies to solving their father’s abrupt departure from The Prison Service. She accepted the challenge but was making little progress.
Mike Lewis had governed NSC and the daughter’s husband had served on the Board of Visitors at NSC, and Mike had become friends with the family. When all else appeared to be leading nowhere, they approached Mike to see if he could be of any assistance. Mike tried to find an answer, but drew a blank, phoned me to see if I knew anything, I agreed to see what I could find. I was unable to find much more than Mike but had an inkling it was linked to the Prison Commission being brought under Civil Service control by the 1961 Criminal Justice Act, which was effective from1964. This was not sufficient to go back to the Kenyon’s with. Mike and I then agreed we should approach Brendan, that fountain of prison knowledge. He, of course, knew the answer; it cantered around the Mountbatten Report which was concerned with security rather than rehabilitation. Hugh struggled with this for 9 months, but in the end, he felt the reformative principles dominating the Service he had joined, had been eroded too far; he resigned, a man of principle the Service could ill afford to lose.
So the RPGA with its network not only helps colleagues to stay in touch, and traces contact details when members have lost touch; with our network of experience in many fields we can help families with their wish to uncover information about family members who have connections with the service but have questions that puzzle them because it was never raised by them previously. We are a gifted and knowledgeable group, we need to sustain it as long as possible, the next generation do not display the same enthusiasm. So do drop a line to Roger, about anything, it helps to sustain the network.
Bob
