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"Thoughts of a Lifetime” - by CA Joyce
Reviewed by Brendan O'Friel
One of the consequences of publishing a book about the Prison Service – “Prison Governor’s Journal “ - is the way it sparks off the discovery of information about the Service from unexpected sources. One of my older Manx readers – a lady in her nineties – found a copy of the above publication on her loft and – because she knew of my Prison Service connections – gave it to me.
As it so happened, I already owned a book by CA Joyce “By Courtesy of the Criminal” published in 1955. The 1955 Book had much about offenders but little about the author or about the Prison Service. I was quite unaware of the existence of a second autobiographical book and to my delight it includes interesting material about the service.
Cyril Alfred Joyce was a remarkable man. Born in June 1900, he joined the Prison and Borstal Service in 1923 as an Assistant Housemaster – he says he was the first “Assistant Housemaster” to be appointed - at Portland Borstal and also served in adult prisons. He was Governor of Camp Hill Borstal on the Isle of Wight and in 1937 opened the new Borstal at Hollesley Bay in Suffolk. In 1941 he left the service to open the Cotswold School for young offenders. He died in 1976.
“Thoughts of a Lifetime” is autobiographical. It gives much more detail than his earlier book about his own service connections and how the service was organised – material I have not seen before.
For example, his father was “Engineer” at Derby Prison so Joyce was brought up in a Prison Service family. Derby Prison was the “New County Gaol” at Vernon Street with 369 cells – closed as a local prison in November 1916 - used as a military prison for a period and demolished around 1930. The Joyce family moved to West London in 1910 when the Prison Service opened a second borstal – Feltham – an establishment that still operates. Joyce served at Wakefield, Durham and Wormwood Scrubs prisons as well as the three borstals.
The book has considerable detail about how the borstals were organised – I was interested to find references to Governor’s “Night Visits “; to the duty days required of Governor grades - they had one day off a week and one weekend a month - which did not change until the introduction of 5 day week working in 1972; of the officer staffing, shift arrangements and duties at Portland in 1923; the introduction for the first time of payment for work done by prisoners at Wakefield. Joyce also notes – almost as an afterthought – that while at Wakefield Prison he was also responsible for the Imperial Training School – latter known as the Prison Service Staff College at Love Lane.
Joyce’s final chapter includes an account of the duties and trials of being a Governor’s wife at Camp Hill and at Hollesley Bay and reminds the reader that he was only paid £28 a month and had to run a car. He also sets out the extent to which he was involved in broadcasting including regular appearances on “Any Questions”. He was undoubtedly the first Governor to develop a media profile!
“Thoughts of a Lifetime” by CA Joyce was published in 1971 by Lakeland at a cost of 50p.
Brendan O’Friel
July 2021
Editors Note. If Brendan’s short review has wetted your appetite then a search for Thoughts of a Lifetime on Amazon will lead you to find that this book is still available priced at between £2.80p and £3.99p plus delivery.
GM-C
