Evelyn Ruggles-Brise
Encyclopedia
Sir Evelyn John Ruggles-Brise KCB
(6 December 1857 – 18 November 1935) was a British
prison
administrator and reformer, and founder of the Borstal
system.
in Essex
, the second son of Sir Samuel Brise Ruggles-Brise
(1825–1899) and his wife, Marianne (née Smith). He had three brothers and seven sisters. His family have deep roots in Essex, having been based at Spains Hall
in Finchingfield since the house was bought by Samuel Ruggles, a clothier, in 1760. His father was Conservative MP
for East Essex from 1868 to 1884. Another relation, Sir Edward Ruggles-Brise, 1st Baronet, was MP for Maldon
from 1922 to his death in 1942 (with a short intermission in 1923-4), and became a baronet
in George V
's Silver Jubilee
honours list in 1935.
Ruggles-Brise was educated at home and at a private school near Hitchin
, before attending Eton
from 1869 to 1876 on a scholarship. His older brother, Archie, was already an Oppidan, and President of Pop. He read Mods
and Greats at Balliol College, Oxford
, graduating with a first in 1880. He also played in the college cricket team.
Ruggles-Brise came sixth in the civil service
exam, and became a clerk in the Home Office
in 1880. He was Principal Private Secretary
to four Home Secretaries, William Harcourt
, Richard Cross
, Hugh Childers
, and Henry Matthews
. The latter appointed him as a Commissioner of Prisons for England and Wales in 1892. The long-serving incumbent chairman of the Prison Commission
, Sir Edmund du Cane, was criticised by Gladstone Committee in 1895, and resigned. Herbert Asquith appointed Ruggles-Brise in his place, and he served as chairman until 1921. His main task was implementing the report of the Gladstone Committee, to combine reform with deterrence, and to separate youths from older men in adult prisons. Reform was undertaken under the Prison Act 1898, and physical punishments such as the treadwheel
and the crank were abolished.
He travelled to the US in 1897 to study study the American reformatory
system, visiting Zebulon Brockway
's Elmira Reformatory. On his return, he formed a facility for young offenders at Bedford prison
, but the regime took its name from the prison at Borstal
near Rochester in Kent
. The experiment became widespread under the Prevention of Crime Act 1908.
He became a CB
in 1899 and was advanced to KCB in 1902. He wrote The English Prison System, published in 1921, and Prison Reform at Home and Abroad, published in 1924.
A confirmed bachelor for many years, he married Jessica Philippa Stonor (née Carew), widow of Francis Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys
, on 3 September 1914. She died on 29 November 1928. He remarried on 6 June 1933, to Sheelah Maud Emily Reade, daughter of Captain the Hon. Francis Algernon James Chichester, and widow of Essex Edgeworth Reade. He died of throat cancer
in Peaslake
in Surrey
, survived by his second wife. He was buried at Finchingfield.
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
(6 December 1857 – 18 November 1935) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
administrator and reformer, and founder of the Borstal
Borstal
A borstal was a type of youth prison in the United Kingdom, run by the Prison Service and intended to reform seriously delinquent young people. The word is sometimes used loosely to apply to other kinds of youth institution or reformatory, such as Approved Schools and Detention Centres. The court...
system.
Biography
Ruggles-Brise was born in FinchingfieldFinchingfield
Finchingfield is a village situated in the Braintree district of Essex. It is in the north-west of the county, which is a primarily rural area...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, the second son of Sir Samuel Brise Ruggles-Brise
Samuel Brise Ruggles-Brise
Samuel Brise Ruggles Brise was a British Conservative Party politician.He was elected as a Member of Parliament for East Essex at the 1868 general election, and held the seat at two further elections before resigning from the House of Commons on 14 August 1883 by becoming Steward of the Manor of...
(1825–1899) and his wife, Marianne (née Smith). He had three brothers and seven sisters. His family have deep roots in Essex, having been based at Spains Hall
Spains Hall
Spains Hall is an Elizabethan country house near Finchingfield in Essex.The hall is named after Hervey de Ispania, who held the manor at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086...
in Finchingfield since the house was bought by Samuel Ruggles, a clothier, in 1760. His father was Conservative MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for East Essex from 1868 to 1884. Another relation, Sir Edward Ruggles-Brise, 1st Baronet, was MP for Maldon
Maldon (UK Parliament constituency)
Maldon is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
from 1922 to his death in 1942 (with a short intermission in 1923-4), and became a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
's Silver Jubilee
Silver Jubilee
A Silver Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 25th anniversary. The anniversary celebrations can be of a wedding anniversary, ruling anniversary or anything that has completed a 25 year mark...
honours list in 1935.
Ruggles-Brise was educated at home and at a private school near Hitchin
Hitchin
Hitchin is a town in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 30,360.-History:Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th century document, the Tribal Hidage. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning...
, before attending Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
from 1869 to 1876 on a scholarship. His older brother, Archie, was already an Oppidan, and President of Pop. He read Mods
Honour Moderations
Honour Moderations are a first set of examinations at Oxford University in England during the first part of the degree course for some courses ....
and Greats at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
, graduating with a first in 1880. He also played in the college cricket team.
Ruggles-Brise came sixth in the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
exam, and became a clerk in the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
in 1880. He was Principal Private Secretary
Principal Private Secretary
In the British Civil Service and Australian Public Service the Principal Private Secretary is the civil servant who runs a cabinet minister's private office...
to four Home Secretaries, William Harcourt
William Vernon Harcourt (politician)
Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt was a British lawyer, journalist and Liberal statesman. He served as Member of Parliament for various constituencies and held the offices of Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer under William Ewart Gladstone before becoming Leader of...
, Richard Cross
R. A. Cross, 1st Viscount Cross
Richard Assheton Cross, 1st Viscount Cross, GCB, GCSI, PC, FRS , known before his elevation to the peerage as R. A. Cross, was a British statesman and Conservative politician...
, Hugh Childers
Hugh Childers
Hugh Culling Eardley Childers was a British and Australian Liberal statesman of the nineteenth century. He is perhaps best known for his reform efforts at the Admiralty and the War Office...
, and Henry Matthews
Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff
Henry Matthews, 1st Viscount Llandaff PC, QC was a British lawyer and Conservative politician. He is best remembered for his role in the 1885 Sir Charles Dilke divorce trial and for his tenure as Home Secretary from 1886 to 1892.-Background and education:The member of an old Herefordshire family,...
. The latter appointed him as a Commissioner of Prisons for England and Wales in 1892. The long-serving incumbent chairman of the Prison Commission
Prison Commission (England and Wales)
The Prison Commission was a public body of the Government of the United Kingdom established in 1877 and responsible for overseeing the operation of HM Prison Service...
, Sir Edmund du Cane, was criticised by Gladstone Committee in 1895, and resigned. Herbert Asquith appointed Ruggles-Brise in his place, and he served as chairman until 1921. His main task was implementing the report of the Gladstone Committee, to combine reform with deterrence, and to separate youths from older men in adult prisons. Reform was undertaken under the Prison Act 1898, and physical punishments such as the treadwheel
Treadwheel
A treadwheel is a form of animal engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference , or by a human or animal standing inside it .Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power...
and the crank were abolished.
He travelled to the US in 1897 to study study the American reformatory
Reformatory
Reformatory is a term that has had varied meanings within the penal system, depending on the jurisdiction and the era. It may refer to a youth detention center, or an adult correctional facility. The term is still in popular use for adult facilities throughout the United States, although most...
system, visiting Zebulon Brockway
Zebulon Brockway
Zebulon Reed Brockway was a penologist and is sometimes regarded as the "Father of prison reform" in the United States.Brockway was born in Lyme, Connecticut in 1828 and began his career as a prison guard at the state prison in Wethersfield, Connecticut at age 20. Brockway became a clerk at the...
's Elmira Reformatory. On his return, he formed a facility for young offenders at Bedford prison
Bedford (HM Prison)
HMP Bedford is a Category B men's prison, located in the Harpur area of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
, but the regime took its name from the prison at Borstal
Borstal, Kent
Borstal is a place in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. Originally a village near Rochester, it has become absorbed by the expansion of Rochester.The youth prison at Borstal gave its name to the Borstal reform school system.-History:...
near Rochester in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. The experiment became widespread under the Prevention of Crime Act 1908.
He became a CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
in 1899 and was advanced to KCB in 1902. He wrote The English Prison System, published in 1921, and Prison Reform at Home and Abroad, published in 1924.
A confirmed bachelor for many years, he married Jessica Philippa Stonor (née Carew), widow of Francis Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys
Francis Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys
Francis Robert Stonor, 4th Baron Camoys was the son of the Honorable Francis Stonor, himself the second son of the third Baron.The fourth Baron was Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria in 1886 and again from 1892-1895....
, on 3 September 1914. She died on 29 November 1928. He remarried on 6 June 1933, to Sheelah Maud Emily Reade, daughter of Captain the Hon. Francis Algernon James Chichester, and widow of Essex Edgeworth Reade. He died of throat cancer
Esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. There are various subtypes, primarily squamous cell cancer and adenocarcinoma . Squamous cell cancer arises from the cells that line the upper part of the esophagus...
in Peaslake
Peaslake
Peaslake is in the centre of the Surrey Hills area, close to the market town of Guildford, England. Surrounded by acres of forest and downland, visitors come here to walk and cycle and to enjoy the views of the local countryside. Nearby to the south is Pitch Hill which at is the fifth highest...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, survived by his second wife. He was buried at Finchingfield.
External links
- Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery