Princes and prisons – the inside story
At the July meeting of Arran Antiquarians, more than 60 members and visitors heard Robbie Glen speak of his life as a governor in the Scottish Prison Service, writes Norma Davidson.
Robbie is an after-dinner speaker of some renown including venues in Cairo, Dubai, Qatar. Athens and Calgary, to name but a few.
Last year he was due to speak to us but, due to a serious illness, he postponed for a year. Now the picture of health, and treatment done, he joked that a semicolon is decidedly better than a fullstop.
He joined the prison service as an assistant governor and was with them until retirement. Among his tenures have been Dungavel (now a detention centre for illegal immigrants), Castle Huntly, Cornton Vale (the Scottish women’s prison) and famous, or infamous, Barlinnie in Glasgow.
He was a junior professional footballer whose career was cut short through lack of talent – his words, not mine. He is a member of Lamlash and Hamilton golf clubs and a member of more than one Burns Club.
Robbie’s strong Arran connections began in 1949 and he eventually bought a house here in 1976, ensuring that the connection continues through the younger generations.
On spying one of our members, Alan Milligan, in the hall, he remembered a meeting on the football field at Polmont when they indulged in fisticuffs and were both banned from the prison officers’ football league.
He was born in Hamilton, where his father was a welfare officer for the ‘poor and mentally deficient’. When the war came this extended to having responsibility for parks, the Hamilton Mausoleum and evacuees. The young Robbie was a frequent visitor to the mausoleum which, incidentally, has the longest echo in Europe and he mourned the fact that Hamilton Palace had been pulled down in the mid 1920s before he was born. This was thought to be why the National Trust for Scotland was formed to prevent further loss of such buildings.
At one of his speaking venues, the Guildhall in London for a brewery awards night, he noticed a statue of Sir William Beckford, the grandfather of Susan, wife of the 10th Duke of Hamilton. Many items of Beckford’s private collection are to be seen in our own Brodick Castle.
He became governor of Dungavel prison which had been formerly home to the 13th and 14th Dukes. It was the duty of the Scottish Prison Service to maintain the grave of the 13th Duke and allow any Hamilton reasonable access to the prison chapel, which contained a water organ, which sadly fell into disrepair as no funding could be provided for its preservation.
When an ex-neighbour came to Dungavel, his social inquiry report deemed his origins as inadequate and deprived. Ironically, Robbie was raised in the same row of council houses which produced graduates, the prison governor, a lawyer and a bishop.
Castle Huntly, owned throughout the years by the Grays, the Lyons, Bowes Lyons and Pattersons, was an open prison covering 150 acres where the 140 boys and young men worked on vegetable and fruit growing.
A highlight was a visit from Prince Charles. Despite the painstaking security arrangements and officialdom, Robbie found Prince Charles charming, well-informed, a great communicator with everyone and happy to wade across a muddy field to speak to some officers’ wives.
He commented that facilities were superior to those he experienced at Gordonstoun. A wonderful question from one of the security officers was: ‘Is there anyone here with previous convictions?’
Of course Robbie’s wife and family were also involved with prison life. Two tales of the many he told were that his daughter, seeing dinner being served, deemed it to be far superior to school dinners and the Christmas dinner riot when the men, having been served with turkey roll, complained that it couldn’t be turkey as ‘it had nae legs and nae wangs’.
Stories and anecdotes came thick and fast for an hour but these are omitted to protect the guilty.
He then worked as governor at Barlinnie. He describes it in many ways: Glasgow’s premier B&B with three meals a day and a roof under your feet, and also as the repository of judicial red cards with a higher room occupancy than the Glasgow Hilton. Mrs Glen must have had a fright when three life-serving murderers delivered a piano to her home. He certainly left us wanting more.
The next meeting of the antiquarians will be in Brodick Hall on Monday August 15 at 2pm when the speaker will be Dr James Morrow, Lord Lyon King of Arms for Scotland. Visitors are always welcome. Members please note the October meeting is on 17th and not as printed on your syllabus card.