IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/3588
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: Burt, John (warder at H.M. Prison Wormwood Scrubs)
Date(s): 1890-1936
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.01 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Burt | John | fl 1890-1936 | prison warder
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Wormwood Scrubs prison was designed in 1870s by Major-General Edmund Du Cane, chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons, as a national long-term penitentiary, built on a site in East Acton with convict labour. By the time the prison was completed, its entire purpose had, however, changed, and it became a local prison for short-term petty offenders. Today Wormwood Scrubbs provides lower security accommodation for remand and short-term prisoners.
From 1904, the prison also became part of the Borstal system for young offenders, and in 1929 it was made an allocation centre from which newly-sentenced trainees were assessed before being sent to a suitable Borstal. In addition Wormwood Scrubbs came to specialise in holding first time offenders, or 'star' prisoners as they were known. It has more recently become a prison in which life-sentence prisoners are assessed in the early years of their terms.
During the Second World War, part of the prison was evacuated for the use of MI5 and the War Department, and by the end of the war, a section of the hospital wing was being used as condemned quarters for prisoners from Wandsworth and Pentonville prisons.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Reminiscences of John Burt, prison warder at H.M. Prison Wormwood Scrubs. Includes newspaper cuttings relating to the prison, 1890-1936.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
One document.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the depositor.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited at the Greater London Record Office by Miss L. Horlick, September 1995.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
See LMA/4417 for further records of Wormwood Scrubs Prison.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.