I wasn’t sure if that would be the last I would hear of Princess Anne paying a visit to HMP Aberdeen. How wrong I was – although our opening invitation was to end in disappointment.
I got all the details from Princess Anne’s aide and I returned to Craiginches. I went in to see the governor, Bill Rattray, and explained there might be a chance we could end up getting a royal visit. Mr Rattray was equally thrilled and excited about that prospect and right away he sat down and started to type up a letter, as I had been instructed, to Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Peter Gibbs, the Princess Royal’s secretary. Mr Rattray’s letter on 29th July 1991 went like this:
I write on behalf of my prison officer Bryan Glennie, the chairman of the Aberdeen Prison Centenary Committee. Mr Glennie is a Butler Trust Award winner and at a recent reception for Scottish Award winners he approached Veronica Linklater of the Trust to ask if it would be possible for the Princess Royal to visit Aberdeen prison to mark the end of the prison’s centenary year celebrations. Veronica suggested that Mr Glennie should write to yourself and, after discussions, he decided that I should make the approach on his behalf.
1991 is a very special year for us at Aberdeen Prison and we have just completed a very extensive programme of fund-raising for local charities. Additionally, prison staff located the original horse-drawn Black Maria which transported the first prisoners to Aberdeen prison. This was restored to its original state by staff and prisoners and was used as a focal point of a parade through the city on 9th June 1991.
Several other events were organised all of which were intended to raise money for charity whilst at the same time raising our community involvement profile. Consequently, Mr Glennie’s suggestion would be a fitting tribute and end to the centenary year. What we had in mind was an informal visit where the Princess Royal could unveil a memorial board with the names of the governors of the establishment over the past 100 years.
I am aware that Royal visits, however, are not the simplest things to organise but feel confident that, having met the Princess Royal during a visit to HM Prison Shotts, she would be interested in what has happened in Aberdeen, particularly, as the chairman of the committee is also a Butler Trust Award winner. I have also spoken to Ruth Stone, the administrator for the Butler Trust. She advised me that the Princess Royal’s visits to establishments under the auspices of the Butler Trust have been finalised and, therefore, it would not be possible to add Aberdeen at this time. She therefore suggested that we make the approach directly with yourself.
I look forward to your response,
W. A. R. Rattray
(Governor of HM Prison Aberdeen)
He didn’t have to wait too long. In fact within a week I was summoned to the Governor’s office, where he handed me the letter with the reply to read. It explained that her engagements were full up for the time of the centenary and with regret she was unable to attend. We did have plenty to organise for our centenary so it allowed more time for that.
It was a disappointment when we heard the news but we always knew it was going to be something of a long shot, especially with all the time the Princess Royal dedicates to charities and good causes every year. We did think that would be the end of any hopes of a visit from the Princess Royal but how wrong we were!
34
The Craiginches Award Winners
All our charitable work at Craiginches didn’t go unnoticed either. We got a lot of local recognition. We were named as Scotland winner in the Business in the Community Awards. We were also specially commended for our work in their national awards for the public sector.
I don’t actually know how we were nominated for any of the awards we received. We didn’t apply ourselves and we can only surmise or speculate that it was the governor or somebody else at Craiginches. Nobody ever held up their hand and told us it was them. I still think it was the governor and my money would be on in him if I was a betting man, but I don’t know 100 per cent.
It was great for the prison to get the recognition and awards we did. Allan Grant, one of the committee, was quoted in the Evening Express at the time. He said: ‘It is good to see the staff and prisoners working together. When it comes to charity the prisoners are always eager to get involved.’ We were invited down to the Business in the Community Awards presentation ceremony in London. It was to be held at the home of British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA). So Allan Grant, Ernie Christie and myself were more than happy to head to England’s capital to pick up an award in recognition of the work done at Craiginches.
We flew down and stayed at my usual digs in Newbury Street, which was a short walk from the awards venue. It was a breakfast celebration so we were up and at it pretty early.
I speak on behalf of all three of us when I say we were honoured to go up and collect the top award: the British Employees in the Community Award. We also got a special commendation for our work at the ceremony, over and above the awards we picked up. It was a special occasion for all involved. The awards kept coming. Within a few weeks of getting back to Craiginches we got word that we had to go down to Grangemouth for a top Scottish award. We had been named as overall winners of the Scottish Business in the Community Awards. We were invited down to receive our award at a special reception which was held at the Grangemouth Oil Refinery near Falkirk.
So Allan MacKinnon and myself headed down the road. We were able to make full use of the accommodation at the Scottish Prison Service training college. We also had a special guest, Charlotte Leys from CLAN, who also did voluntary work at the prison, while governor Bill Rattray also came down on the day.
It was full of high flyers and it was great to know that HMP Aberdeen was going to take pride of place. It gave all four of us a tremendous boost and a real buzz, knowing all the hard work that had got Craiginches to this point. It had been a real team effort that had paid off with everything we had done and achieved. The awards were nice and the icing on the cake but they were pretty much secondary.
We had done a lot of good work but I remember our introduction ahead of our awards so vividly. The host explained how we had opened up the prison and brought the local community into events like the Burns Suppers and the Christmas Party.
A lot of emphasis was put on our work in the community, going out into the community, building bridges and also the high quality of work the prisoners had produced at Burn O’Vat and the building of the boardwalks at Bridge of Don.
It was a real team effort and every one of the Craiginches staff played their part some way along the line. We were just so lucky and fortunate during that period to have the staff we had. Nothing was impossible or too much trouble. We all just dug in and made things happen. Whether it was making things, dressing up or just volunteering their time. It was a joy to work for them. These awards were for every single one of our colleagues. The awards kept on coming. Sometime later Allan Grant from our committee was awarded an MBE not just for his work on our committee or the Black Maria but also for many years of dedication to the Scottish Prison Service – what a well deserved honour.
35
Representing Craiginches and Scotland
We also got major recognition for Craiginches on another front – our bowling. I actually first got involved in the sport not long after I had started work at the prison, having finally decided to up sticks and move the family to Aberdeen. We moved to a new three-bedroom house at Heathryfold West in the city. I had always thought about taking up bowling but my time was limited in Insch due to work, church, football and boxing commitments.
Now I was moving to the big city I thought it was as good a time as any to give it a try. The good thing with Aberdeen being a big city was that I was never going to be short of options. As you know, I became a member of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Bowling Club, which was the closest one to our new home, hence the reason we were able to get prisoners on to the green banks improvement project there a few years later. I have always loved bowling. It is a good sport. I have also been lucky enough t
o make some really great friends thanks to my time bowling.
My work at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary also took me down another bowling route. Colin Mearns played out of Cults Bowling Club but he knew me very well. He asked me if I would like to do a course to become a bowling coach. I hadn’t really given it much thought before. I had given people advice or a bit of guidance here or there but beyond that I had pretty much concentrated on my own game. I did have a think about his proposal and then I thought why not. I called him to tell him I had decided to take him up on his offer. A few weeks later it was all done and dusted and I had my coaching qualifications. I wanted to put them to full use so I started to coach new members at the ARI and I still continue to coach to this day. I do most of my coaching at my current club, Polmuir. I coach everyone from new members down to the coaching for the school children from the local school in Ferryhill. It would be good to see more and more people getting into the sport because it keeps you active, fit and competitive. I just love to see new people getting involved. It would be great if they could get as much out of bowling as I have throughout the years.
A lot of my bowling highlights come from bowling for the Scottish Prison Service’s Bowling Association. It wasn’t that long after I started at Craiginches that I got involved in the local and national competitions. We had a lot of good bowlers in the Aberdeen prison officers scene. They competed at various clubs in and around Aberdeen, which was good, especially when we went into the inter-prison tournaments, where we would play the staff from other similar establishments from across Scotland.
I bowled at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with Gordon Tough, while Alex Baddenoch and Johnny Annand were out of Whitehall Bowling Club. That brought a bit of extra edge when it came to the individual competitions.
There would be pairs, fours and triples. The competitions could be anywhere in Scotland from Stirling to Perth and beyond. We certainly clocked up the miles travelling from the North-east to play representatives from the prisons at Barlinnie, Peterhead, Inverness, Perth, Friarton and Edinburgh. All the Scottish competitions were really well attended.
The good thing was that the Aberdeen teams were always really competitive. I know because I was lucky enough to be part of teams who won the rinks and the triples three times. I played with Johnny and Alex in the triples. We gelled well as a team and we were always hard to beat.
I was also part of the side that won the Scottish Prison Service fours at the Tulloch Institute in Perth in 1990. Our successful team that year comprised Bill Watt, Bill Courage, Johnny Annand and myself. We played well throughout the competition to get our hands on the C. E. Health Cup. We beat Dumfries in the semi-final and got a big win over our local rivals, Peterhead, in the final. That particular trophy proved to be relatively lucky for Johnny and myself. We weren’t able to defend our title but we did get our hands on it again a year later in 1992. So in those three years it spent a lot of time in the living rooms of Aberdeen. The second time around we beat Perth in the semi-final and then we got the better of Polmont in the final. So it is always a competition I look back on with a great fondness.
Another tournament I was lucky enough to win was the Scottish Prison Service Indoor Rinks Championship. I was in a team that included Bob Campbell senior, Sandy Scott and Scott Wheeler. The tournament was held down at the West Lothian Indoor Stadium in Livingston. It was funny because I didn’t even know if I was going to have a team to play with in that particular competition. There was myself and Sandy Scott from Longriggend but apart from that we were still two short. We would have been all right for a pairs competition but we were sadly lacking for the fours. The problem was that two of our stalwarts, Gordon Tough and Johnny Annand, were playing at their own club competitions in Aberdeen that weekend and were unable to travel.
So it was a case of trying to find two new recruits who could come in. Most of the time it wasn’t a problem, there was always someone who wanted to be involved, but with the shift system in prisons we were often short of players. I must say we were really lucky that day to manage to get a hold of the two players we did.
We managed to get a team made up with Bob Campbell senior, who played his bowls at Perth, and Scott Wheeler, who played at Newhills in Aberdeen.Experienced bowlers know that it is a far different game going from indoor to outdoor or vice versa.
I couldn’t believe it. None of us expected to gel and play quite as well as we did. I certainly never had any thoughts about winning when I went into the competition. I was just relieved we had a team and I was getting a game. We started strongly and the confidence just grew and that took us all the way.
We did really well and managed to beat Stuart Little’s Glenochil team 4–3 in the final to lift the James Strang Trophy. We came out top of twenty-three other teams – not bad for a team that was only put together at the last minute.
Sandy Scott was another extended member of the Aberdeen bowling team. There were only a handful of players in Sandy’s area and so he was always delighted to take our call. The good thing was that he was an exceptional bowler and so we knew when he came in he would just strengthen our team.
A lot of our staff did get a bit tired of the travelling down to the Central Belt and further afield when there were so many competitions in the Central Belt, so it was good to have others to call on because the prison bowling was another big commitment.
The bowlers were also selected to play our annual games against the Scottish Police Service. They were also competitive affairs, with both teams desperate for the upper hand.
The inter-prison tournaments, though, continued to be the main events in the Craiginches’ bowling calendar. Success in those domestic competitions also opened other doors and lifted things to a whole new level.
There was the annual international tie against the English Prison Service. One year it would be in Scotland and the next it was England and so on. We thought it was the fairest way and allowed people to come and visit and see parts of the country they wouldn’t normally. It was also a good way to strengthen relations between the Scottish and English prison services.
It wasn’t, however, just a straight selection policy. It was far more regimented than that. You had to earn your place and the only real way to guarantee your spot was to make an impression in the national tournaments.
It was done on a points basis. You would be given ranking points if you got so far in a tournament. You would get more points the further you went and even more if you won it. The top points winners at the end of each season were then guaranteed their place in the team. So you knew if you played well and consistently throughout the year you would be fine, but if you didn’t it was a long and anxious wait.
The selectors would then have a few wild card selections like the captains have in golf’s Ryder Cup. They then handpicked players from other prisons to make up the rest of the team.
The Scottish Prison Bowling Association was organised by a committee and led by Bob Campbell, who was originally from Perth. The job Bob and his team did in organising all these events and games was fantastic. They sorted your accommodation and your transport and everything else in between. They really were an excellent committee and their organising skills were first class. The Scottish team was also well turned out and we had a few sponsors. One year Slater’s menswear kitted us out and this year, 2017, they celebrate twenty-five years since it was formed.
We seemed to be dressed for success out on the rink against the Auld Enemy as well.
In my time against England we only lost two internationals and I think I played about seventeen times against them. If I remember correctly the first fixture was in 1992, when we won at Alnwick. From then on it became an annual event.
I played that first year with Derek Stewart in my rinks team. Derek was also from Aberdeen and he played out of Portlethen Bowling Club. We did well together but so did most of our teams.
It did irk the England teams when they lost but the good thing was it was an annual competition so they got their c
hance for revenge the next year. They never had that long to wait. Also, once we left the rink it was all forgotten and we would have a social event all together and a few light refreshments.
The following year the return was on home soil with Bridge of Allan chosen as the venue where we were looking to defend our crown. The committee continued to work tirelessly and managed to bring in Black Bottle Whisky as the international match sponsor. I certainly appeared confident that we would win. The local press did an article on the game. I was quoted in the Evening Express as having said: ‘Having hammered England on their own territory, we will be looking for a double.’ We did win in Bridge of Allan but it wasn’t all success and when we lost to England it was a big thing. I recall the first time they beat us. We had won the first two meetings and we were looking to make it a glorious hat-trick but we fell just short of the mark.
The match that year was in Leicester, at the Knighton Victoria Bowling Club, so it meant that much more to the England team not to lose at home again. It was harder for us to take, as it was a tight affair, and in the end five shots were the only difference between the teams.
We usually delayed coming back up the road from England because we played a friendly on the Sunday and would return to Scotland on the Monday. That year we played Warwickshire County Vice-presidents Association at Bilton Bowling Club. That was a bit flatter than normal after we had lost the big one in the Midlands.
The next year we were back up in Scotland. Bridge of Allan was the venue and we hoped it would bring us continued luck. I remember the Evening Express and the Press and Journal newspapers, which in fairness gave our prison bowling great coverage, made a big thing about that follow-up match. It helped that there were quite a few Aberdeen players in the team.
Craiginches Page 15
