JOURPRISON SERVICE NAL This edition includes: May 2020 No 249 ‘Major H’ — the life and times of a Victorian Convict Prison governor David J. Cox and Joseph Hale ‘You cease to be a man’: masculinity and the ‘gentleman convict’, c.1870-1914 Ben Bethell The rebellion of the ‘basement lecturers’: The Wandsworth Prison Disturbances of 1918-19 Steve Illingworth A forestalled campaign and a forgotten tragedy: the prison suicide of Edward Spiers in 1930 Alyson Brown Revisiting the Borstal experiment, c. 1902-1982 Special Edition: Heather Shore Understanding the Past II Contents PRISON SERVICE Alyson Brown is a History Professor OUR NAL 2 Understanding the past II J and Associate Head of English, History and Creative Writing at Edge Editorial Comment Hill University and Dr Alana Barton is a Reader in Criminology at Edge Hill Alyson Brown and Dr Alana Barton university Purpose and editorial arrangements The Prison Service Journal is a peer reviewed journal published by HM Prison Service of England and Wales. Its purpose is to promote discussion on issues related to the work of the Prison Service, the wider criminal justice system and associated fields. It aims to present reliable information and a range of views about these issues. David J. Cox is a Reader in Criminal 4 ‘Major H’ — the life and times of a Victorian Justice History at The University of Wolverhampton and Joseph Hale is a Convict Prison governor Lecturer in Criminology at The The editor is responsible for the style and content of each edition, and for managing production and the University of Wolverhampton and David J. Cox and Joseph Hale currently studying for a PhD. Journal’s budget. The editor is supported by an editorial board — a body of volunteers all of whom have worked for the Prison Service in various capacities. The editorial board considers all articles submitted and decides the out - line and composition of each edition, although the editor retains an over-riding discretion in deciding which arti - cles are published and their precise length and language. Ben Bethell recently completed a 11 ‘You cease to be a man’: masculinity and the PhD at Birkbeck, University of From May 2011 each edition is available electronically from the website of the Centre for Crime London, on the ‘star class’ in late- ‘gentleman convict’, c.1870-1914 Victorian and Edwardian convict and Justice Studies. This is available at http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/psj.html prisons Ben Bethell Circulation of editions and submission of articles Six editions of the Journal, printed at HMP Leyhill, are published each year with a circulation of approximately Steve Illingworth is a Senior 17 The rebellion of the ‘basement lecturers’: Lecturer in History Education at Edge 6,500 per edition. The editor welcomes articles which should be up to c.4,000 words and submitted by email to The Wandsworth Prison Disturbances of 1918-19 Hill University’ [email protected] or as hard copy and on disk to Prison Service Journal , c/o Print Shop Manager, Steve Illingworth HMP Leyhill, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12 8BT. All other correspondence may also be sent to the Editor at this address or to [email protected] . Footnotes are preferred to endnotes, which must be kept to a minimum. All articles are subject to peer review and may be altered in accordance with house style. No payments are made for articles. Subscriptions The Journal is distributed to every Prison Service establishment in England and Wales. Individual members of staff need not subscribe and can obtain free copies from their establishment. Subscriptions are invited from other individuals and bodies outside the Prison Service at the following rates, which include postage: Editorial Board Dr Ruth Armstrong Dr Jamie Bennett (Editor) Dr David Maguire United Kingdom University of Cambridge HMPPS University College, London Dr Rachel Bell Professor Anne-Marie McAlinden single copy £7.00 Paul Crossey (Deputy Editor) HMP Send Queen’s University, Belfast one year’s subscription £40.00 (organisations or individuals in their professional capacity) Alli Black HMP Huntercombe Dr Karen Harrison HMP Kirkham Dr Ruth Mann (Reviews Editor) Maggie Bolger HMPPS University of Hull £35.00 (private individuals) Prison Service College, Newbold Revel Steve Hall William Payne Professor Alyson Brown Independent Independent Edge Hill University Professor Yvonne Jewkes George Pugh Gareth Evans University of Bath HMP Belmarsh Overseas Independent Dr Helen Johnston Dr David Scott Dr Ben Crewe University of Hull Open University single copy £10.00 University of Cambridge Dr Bill Davies Christopher Stacey Dr Sacha Darke Leeds Beckett University Unlock one year’s subscription £50.00 (organisations or individuals in their professional capacity) University of Westminster Martin Kettle Ray Taylor Dr Michael Fiddler Church of England HMPPS £40.00 (private individuals) University of Greenwich Dr Victoria Knight Mike Wheatley Dr Kate Gooch De Montfort University HMPPS University of Bath Monica Lloyd Kim Workman Dr Darren Woodward University of Birmingham Rethinking Crime and Punishment, NZ Orders for subscriptions (and back copies which are charged at the single copy rate) should be sent with a Coventry University Dr Amy Ludlow Dr David Honeywell University of Cambridge University of Durham Jackson Joseph cheque made payable to ‘HM Prison Service’ to Prison Service Journal , c/o Print Shop Manager, HMP Leyhill, HMP Leyhill Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, GL12 8BT. Prison Service Journal Issue 249 Issue 249 Prison Service Journal May 2020 A forestalled campaign and a forgotten tragedy: Alyson Brown is a Professor of 24 History at Edge Hill University the prison suicide of Edward Spiers in 1930 Alyson Brown 27 Revisiting the Borstal experiment, Heather Shore is a Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan c. 1902-1982 University. Heather Shore 34 Book Review Aarohi Khare is a Doctoral Researcher at University of Kent The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Forensic Neuroscience Aarohi Khare 34 Book Review Paul Crossey is a Deputy Governor at HMP The Mount The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil Paul Crossey 36 Book Review William Payne is a former prison governor and member of the PSJ The Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence Editorial Board against Anxiety: Report on a Study of the Nursing Service of a General Hospital William Payne Cover courtesy HM Leyhill The Editorial Board wishes to make clear that the views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Prison Service. Printed at HMP Leyhill on 115 gsm and 200 gsm Galerie Art Satin Set in 10 on 13 pt Frutiger Light Circulation approx 6,500 ISSN 0300-3558 „ Crown Copyright 2019 Issue 249 Prison Service Journal 1 Understanding the past II Editorial Comment Alyson Brown is a Professor of History and Associate Head of English, History and Creative Writing at Edge Hill University and Dr Alana Barton is a Reader in Criminology at Edge Hill University This second special edition of the Prison Service ‘constitutes our most important cultural resource. Journal links to an earlier one published November It offers a means — imperfect but indispensable — of 2019. Many of the fascinating contributions to these entering the kind of experience that is simply not two editions derive from research papers given at the possible in our own lives. Our sense of the heights to British Crime Historians Conference (Edge Hill University which human beings can attain, and the depths to 2018). The variety and number of the papers which they may sink, the resourcefulness they may demonstrated the wealth and quality of research on show in a crisis, the sensitivity they can show in crime history. The conference also celebrated the responding to each other’s needs — all these are decade since the first of those biennial conferences had nourished by knowing what has been thought and been held: a decade in which the study of crime history done in the very different contexts of the past.’ 1 has gone from strength to strength. In that context we Ultimately, history is about human experience and felt it was important to bring that work to a wider human understanding; subjects that concern us all. We audience. Of course, it is not always possible for may not always value our rootedness in the past, but researchers to attend conferences, so we followed up we can see the vulnerability of those who lack roots. with a call for interest in contributing to a special We must understand the foundations to build and edition of the Prison Service Journal . The total response grow, whether that is on an individual level or a was much more than we had anticipated so instead of systemic one. one special historical edition we decided to produce Beginning the edition with an individual focus, two. That the editorial board of the Journal accepted David Cox and Joseph Hale present a biographical two editions is recognition of the importance of account of prisoner governor ‘Major H’. The authors historical work in understanding the twenty-first note that, perhaps surprisingly, there are relatively few century criminal justice system. Not that history can be historical accounts written about, or by, English prison mined in any straightforward and one-dimensional way, governors. Drawing on contemporary prison records a mistake made all too often in media and political uses and personal journal entries, they examine the life, and abuses of history. Nevertheless, we ignore historical character and work of Major Robert Hickey, who developments at our peril as structures, processes, became governor of Dartmoor prison in 1870. As an philosophies and objectives have origins sometimes so ex-military man Hickey was a fairly typical governor for deeply embedded in the past that they can remain the period but his short tenure at Dartmoor was unquestioned and unproblematised in the present.