33

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL,
SOCIAL CARERS, REFORMERS AND PRAECEPTORS
Special meeting held at SCRAP offices, King’s Cross

Present:

 

GWENDOLEN GERDON, Executive Director (ED)
LADY DOUGHBERRY, representing the Bunyan Society for
Prison Reform
PROFESSOR MAXWELL HEATHERINGTON, Reader in
Criminology at the University of East Surrey
CAMPBELL DYSON, Chair of Dyson Soft Furnishing
IVY SINCLAIR, BBC Today programme
PETER BETHELL, partner in the firm of Bethell, Sherman and
Pensotti, Solicitors
THE REV. HARVEY TYLER, Rector, St Barnabas, King’s Cross
ALEX MARKBY, representing the Probation Service

 

Gwendolen Gerdon (the ED) read out the letter received from the chair, Leonard McGrath.

 

To the members of the council of SCRAP. My doctors have informed me that the British climate is seriously damaging my health and it is essential that I move to a place abroad where I can enjoy the benefits of sunshine and warmth. To delay my departure would have risked further damage to the condition of my chest and lungs, so I’m sorry to say that I shall be out of the country when the council receives this letter.

I would like to add that it has been a pleasure and an honour to have been chair of SCRAP. I wish you all success under your new chair. Carry on with the good work!

Yours sincerely,

Leonard McGrath

 

The Rev. Harvey Tyler asked if Leonard McGrath had given any address of his residence abroad so that messages of sympathy and gratitude might be sent to him. The ED told the meeting that she had no information as to the whereabouts of our former chair, except it was clearly ‘a place in the sun’. She had made enquiries and discovered that his maisonette in Connaught Square was ‘up for sale’.

A motion was proposed by the Rev. Harvey Tyler and seconded by Lady Doughberry thanking Leonard McGrath for his inspirational leadership of SCRAP, to be sent to him as soon as the ED discovered his address.

Professor Maxwell Heatherington suggested that the meeting should proceed to elect a new chair. Various names were suggested, including Princess Anne, Mr Terry Wogan and Dame Judi Dench.

After further discussion, Peter Bethell said that we need look no further than this room to find an excellent chair, one with huge experience of the problems of prison and prisoners, and he proposed Mr Alex Markby and he was seconded by Mr Campbell Dyson. Mr Markby said he was taken aback at being offered such a great honour and his first instinct was to refuse, but after further thought he was persuaded that his long experience of the reform of ex-prisoners and finding them a useful place in society would be of value in a chair. ‘Leonard McGrath,’ he said, ‘would be a hard act to follow, but I can only do my best.’

The proposal to elect Mr Alex Markby chair was carried nem. con. There being no further business, the ED declared the special meeting closed and tea was served early at 3.30 p.m.