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Issue 87 Autumn 2022
Michael Selby
When I met Jimmy Savile


A recent programme on TV about Broadmoor Special Hospital recalled a curious incident in my working life over 30 years ago.

I had been Governor of Grendon Prison for about 5 years. Previously a Medical Superintendent had been in charge and this experimental psychiatric prison had utilised the “Therapeutic Community” as the treatment method, designed by Dr Maxwell Jones. The sudden death of the Doctor in charge of Grendon, followed by a gap of a year, resulted in my appointment as Grendon’s first non-medically qualified governor. The mixture of medical and non-medical staff, all concerned with therapy, required a redesign of the management structure. This was successful; the therapeutic regime had settled and was prospering. This is always a dangerous time for me as, temperamentally, I prefer a crisis to monotony. Temptation came my way whilst I was attending a conference at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

One of the fellow delegates took me for a walk in the park. He was a Deputy Secretary at the Department of Health responsible for, amongst other matters, Broadmoor Special Hospital. He sought my advice about its management structure.
I gathered he thought it chaotic, and he had recently sacked the Medical Director.
A decision had been made that, in future, a General Manager (i.e., not a medical person) would be in charge, and he asked me how this should be organised. He considered that my experience of being the first non-medically qualified person in charge of Grendon was relevant and could be useful. We had skipped an entire session of the conference during the course of this conversation and long walk and it became clear that his intention was to invite me to put forward my name.

There followed some weeks of consideration. Clearly a visit would help, so I invited myself and spent the day with a Doctor who was a thoroughly caring person and it was significant that several patients came up to consult her. It occurred to me that the normal opportunities appeared to be limited. The design of the Hospital was enlightened Victorian, solid, unimaginative but surprisingly unpenal. It was built on an escarpment so that the land falls sharply away. Thus the surrounding wall is not oppressive and the view stretches across a delightful countryside near Crowthorne in Berkshire.

It was visiting day and the visits were taking place in a large room with open, unbarred windows in the pleasant summer sunshine. There was a patio, and I asked the Doctor why the visits did not take place outside in the summer sunshine. "An interesting question, I'll ask". So, she asked a 'nurse,' a big man with a thrusting chin-his reply was: "Nobody has asked..., Doctor"- and nor would they dare, I thought. It epitomised one of the main problems: what were the staff? Nurses, guards? Participants in therapy? Hum...hardly and that their union was the Prison Officers Association and not a medical one, gave pause. A remark by a recent group of visiting Danish Psychiatrists came to my mind; the leader had said "We visited Broadmoor yesterday and Grendon today and as far as we are concerned Broadmoor is the Prison and Grendon the Hospital."

One other significant remark, I asked the Doctor what was Broadmoor's TASK? "What do you mean?" she asked. My reply was, "...for example, that on every member of the Grendon staff’s Job description was the statement -Your task is to enable therapy to take place." "What a good  idea!" was her enthusiastic response. I thought, how long has this place been going and what would my first task be if I took the job?

So I applied, it would enable me to work past the age of 60 and I didn't feel like retiring then. Was this despite, or was it because of, the chaos? An unspoken problem concerned me, the elusive yet pervasive presence of Jimmy Savile, but I could not get a direct answer. I was aware of his voluntary work and influence in Stoke Mandeville Hospital and the importance of his fund raising, but what was he doing at Broadmoor? By repute his unofficial League of Friends was the sticking plaster that kept this place together........ just. Furthermore, the acting manager, L, was a person he had brought down from Leeds as his selection.

A professional H.R. firm was in charge of the selection process. A medical examination was required in London and all I can recall was a hearing test conducted by a Japanese lady with an incomprehensible accent who discovered wax in my ears, thus the day was not entirely wasted. The selection process took 3 days. Assembly the first day, then tours and tests and the interview on the 3rd.

6 candidates -all men, met and we enjoyed each other's company, I was the only one from outside the Department of Health. L., for whom we felt some pity, as he clearly was a stopgap of limited ability, had been included in the candidature.

Earlier in the afternoon, during the tour it was clear that whilst a great deal of money had been spent on office and staff facilities, little had been spent on patient accommodation. The dormitories were crushingly crowded.

Security. I pointed out that the curved topping on the perimeter wall would hold and retain a bucket handle attached to a rope. I was aware that the Home Office had known of this defect 20 years ago and had provided an alternative design for prisons. Why had this not percolated here?

There was little consultation about patient progress with those who had daily contact, like the instructors in the various workshops. I asked them. However, it was the visit to the women's living quarters that raised my ire. There was the sitting room and to accommodate us the women were expelled, just like that. We were crowding into their space. I asked the manager about the patients' choice for their environment and was reassured that this was catered for. "And the decorations?" I asked, "Oh yes," was the reply. "So" I said" take this room, which is theirs, the wall paper is in the Regency style designed in the 1950's and those two prints are Doris Zickerstein done in 1945, are you saying they chose that?" There was an angry growl on my left from the representative of the organisation running the selection process "You're not in charge yet".

However I did meet a former Grendon inmate now a patient and he appeared happy to see me but was guarded about the regime.

The formal dinner on the second evening was attended by Jimmy Savile, the guest of honour, in his estimation. He dominated proceedings with endless personal anecdotes where he came off best in every encounter. I was placed beside him at table. Was this significant? Jangling with gold he spoke only of himself and did not drink alcohol. His role was still undefined.
On the morning of the third day, it came to the interview. I cannot recall the identities of those who formed the panel, except that it was all men, curious, considering the women both patients and staff. Chaired by a senior civil servant from the Department of Health and on his right... Jimmy Saville! Nobody had warned us. What was he doing there? What right had he to be part of this selection process? So, the opportunity for me was to walk out. To my subsequent regret I remained seated. I wanted to establish that I would not take a drop of £10,000 pa in pay if selected. Why was the post so underpaid? The chairman winced "I hear what you say". The questions of the Board were superficial and Saville's one question jejune.

So I drove home. Later that evening I received the phone call informing me that I had not been selected. I asked who had been. The reply was L. I snorted that he was unfit for the task; there was a pause, then the phone went dead. Now it was clear why Jimmy Savile had wormed his way onto the selection board, but it was to be many years before I was to learn how he had done it.

It was an article in the Sunday Telegraph -never denied nor contradicted, which stated that at a dinner in the Athenaeum, hosted by Jimmy Savile and attended by various interested persons, the selection was settled. This was 3 months earlier and consequentially the whole process that we candidates had undergone had been an expensive and illegal charade, but it enabled L to claim that he had been selected for the task through open competition, but not that he was subsequently sacked.

What none of us knew at the time was that Jimmy Savile had been issued with a key enabling him to wander at will and lust throughout the Hospital. Permission granted by the Minister of State. No wonder there was a sense of discomfort.

The conclusion is that, throughout, the needs of the patients had been ignored.

Post Script:

As Dr Jack Wright, Grendon’s Senior Medical Officer, said "You're well out of it. Anybody who's bright enough for that job is smart enough not to take it."

Furthermore, not long afterwards, the exacting needs of Grendon requiring a full evacuation, four days before Christmas, demanded full time effort.


Michael Selby