Obituary
| DOI | 10.1177/026455055900900407 |
| Published date | 01 December 1959 |
| Date | 01 December 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
56
OBITUARY
SIDNEY
GARDINER
BOSWELL
Former
colleagues
and
friends
of
the
Probation
Service
will
have
heard
with
profound
regret
of
the
death
of
Mr.
S.
G.
Boswell
who
passed
away
on
9th
September
last
at
the
age
of
77.
He
was
a
man
of
great
and
varied
experience,
sympathy
and
earnestness.
He
was
affectionately
known
as
&dquo;S.G.B.&dquo;
and
was
appointed
as
a
probation
officer
in
1908
and
assigned
to
Marylebone
Court
when
the
Probation
Act
came
into
force.
Since
that
time
his
influence
for
good
has
been
brought
to
bear
upon
a
vast
number
of
proba-
tioners
and
countless
number
of
married
people
with
matrimonial
difficulties,
apart
from
the
many
human
mis-
fits
that
passed
his
way.
Many
of
these
have
been
most
grateful
to
him
for
all
he
gladly
did
for
them.
I
had
the
pleasure
of
intimate
knowledge
and
close
friendship
with
him
since
the
early
teens
of
the
century
and
often
saw
him
and
the
famous
Magistrate.
Mr.
Plowden,
co-operating
in
trying
to
induce
offenders
to
amend
their
lives.
So
many
responded
and
were
given
a
new
start
in
life
in
spite
of
the
limited
industrial
oppor-
tunities
of
the
time.
Little
did
I
know
then
that
we
would
later
be
working
together
helping
to
bring
into
being
the
London
Probation
Service.
S.G.B.
was
a
man
of
simple
and
sincere
faith
and
had
a
joy
in
his
work
which
nothing
could
really
diminish.
The
qualities
which
made
him
so
successful
as
a
probation
officer
in
the
courts
were
brought
to
bear
on
his
work
as
an
Assistant
Principal
Probation
Officer
which
in
some
respects
appealed
to
him
very
much.
He
was
especially
happy
when
he
was
called
upon
to
help
and
advise
trainees
and
the
less
experienced
probation
officers,
but
there
were
times,
as
with
most
of
us,
when
he
would
wish
to
be
back
in
court,
in
what
he
called
&dquo;the
front
line
of
the
battle
against
crime
and
misery&dquo;.
For
many
years
he
associated
with
oflicers
from
all
over
the
country
working
in
the
interest
of
the
National
Association
of
Probation
Officers
and
for
this
S.G.B.
will
always
be
honoured
and
remembered,
as
an
officer
whose
ambition
was
to
serve,
and
we
like
to
think
of
him
that
way.
E.W.W.
CYRIL
FREEBODY
Few
men
were
better
known
throughout
the
Probation
Service
than
C.
E.
A.
Freebody.
Warden
of
the
Diplock
House
Probation
Hostel,
Brighton,
and
the
news
of
his
death
has
come
as
a
shock
to
many,
despite
the
fact
that
he
had
waged
a
long
battle
against
ill-health
over
the
years.
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Freebody
were
acquainted
with
the
prob-
lems
of
young
people
and
concerned
about
them
in
many
spheres
and
they
brought
their
experience
and
understand-
ing
to
the
Probation
Hostel
to
make
it
one
of
the
out-
standing
establishments
of
its
kind.
They
combined
their
parental
concern
for
all
their
charges,
with
a
friendliness
and
appreciation
of
the
Probation
Service,
and
many
offices
will
remember
the
hospitality
with
which
this
was
marked
when
a
visit
to
Brighton
became
necessary.
The
sympathy
of
the
whole
Service
goes
to
Mrs.
Free-
body,
it
also
goes
to
many
former
residents
of
Diplock
House
who
remained
in
touch
with
Cyril
Freebody
as
a
friend
to
whom
they
could
always
turn.
MISS
HILDA
EDWARDS
It
is
with
regret
we
mention
the
death
of
Miss
Hilda
Edwards,
who
retired
from
the
Probation
Service
in
October.
1954.
Miss
Edwards
had
been
associated
with
the
courts
in
South
Staffordshire
for
29
years,
as
a
Police
Court
Missioner,
and
later
as
a
probation
officer.
Her
name
was
virtually
synonymous
with
the
West
Bromwich
Court,
where
she
was
held
in
very
high
respect.
She
passed
away
on
12the
August
last
at
her
home
in
Weston-
super-Mare,
where
she
had
lived
since
her
retirement.
In
a
tribute
to
her,
Mr.
Harry
Payne
says
-
&dquo;She
did
a
great
job
in
the
service
of
others,
and
we
are
all
very
sorry
she
did
not
live
longer
to
enjoy
her
retirement&dquo;.
Probation
Forum
Selection
You
invited
comments
on
Miss
Braithwaite’s
article.
published
in
the
September
issue
of
PROBATION.
I would
like
to
take
up
some
of
her
remarks
about
selection.
Miss
Braithwaite
tells
us
that
N.A.P.O.
is
anxious
to
prevent
people
coming
into
the
service
by
direct
entry,
but
that
the
present
staff
shortage
makes
it
impossible
to
insist
on
entry
through
the
Home
Oifice
selection
pro-
cedure.
This
argument
will
not
bear
examination.
What
presumably
is
meant
is
that
not
enough
trained
people
are
entering
the
service,
and
so
local
probation
committees
are
forced
to
choose
untrained
personnel.
This
has
been
the
situation
for
several
years,
and
yet
it
was
not
until
last
year
that
the
decision
was
made
to
double
the
rate
of
entry
through
the
Home
Olfice
scheme.
Miss
Braithwaite
says
that
we
should
not
assume
that
direct
entrants
are
more
materialistic
than
Home
Office
students,
or
lack
a
sense
of
vocation
simply
because
they
do
not
make
great
personal
sacrifices
in
order
to
get
training.
I
make
no
such
assumption.
On
the
contrary,
I
ask
why
should
they
make
such
personal
sacrifices’?
If
older
men
are
required
to
do
the
job
of
probation
officers,
it
ought
to
be
possible
to
train
them
without
making
them
live
on
the
income
of
an
undergraduate.
What
business
firm
would
offer
such
terms
to
its
trainees’?
And
if,
as
Miss
Braithwaite
assures
us,
most
of
these
direct
entrants
do
eventually
arrive
at
Rainer
House,
on
a
salary,
they
would
be
foolish
to
ever
think
of
doing
the
same
course
on
a
grant.
In
short, isn’t
it
time
that
all
the
trainees
at
Rainer
House,
not
to
mention
those
younger
men
on
university
courses,
were
given
a
salary,
so
that
the
pros-
pective
officer
would
not
be
actively
discouraged
from
entering
the
service
in
the
approved
manner?
Miss
Braithwaite
begs
us
not
to
assume
that
direct
entrants
are
all
less
suitable
to
become
probation
officers
than
those
selected
in
the
normal
way.
I
do
not
assume
this.
But
I
do
assume
that
the
fallibility
of
local
probation
committees
is
greater
than
that
of the
normal
selection
procedure.
It
seems
to
me
important
that
at
any
rate
some
of
the
direct
entrants
would
not
have
survived
the
Home
Office
procedure.
It
does
not
seem
to
me
sufficient
to
say
that
the
present
staff
shortage
is
bedevilling
the
issue.
Why
is
there
a
staff
shortage?
Surely
the
answer
to
this
lies
in
the
failure
of
the
Home
Officer,
until
this
last
year,
to
expand
its
train-
ing
scheme
to
meet
the
demand.
And
if
many
direct
To continue reading
Request your trial