17-year-old serial escapee Kenneth Harrison was apprehended by the destroyer HMS Finisterre at Spithead on 12th June 1950.
The Lancashire youth – who was at St Swithin’s Approved School near Yarmouth – had first stolen a dinghy from Yarmouth. He was then believed to have changed boats in Southampton Water, where he had appropriated the motor skiff Mike.
The destroyer had left Portsmouth for exercises when it sighted the skiff, which was then drifting in the water. At this point, Harrison had been at sea for over 24 hours without food or water.
The destroyer picked up Harrison and took the boat in tow. He was then provided with refreshments and handed over to the care of Portsmouth City Police.
This was the 2nd time Harrison had escaped from the Island. The previous Sunday, he had stolen a dinghy from the Royal Solent Yacht Club and rowed 22 miles to Poole. He was then recaptured in London and returned to St Swithin’s.
The Home Office were said to have given careful consideration as to whether Harrison – who was described as ‘quiet’ – should be returned to the Island. He had previously been placed in an institution in the North of England, from which he had had escaped and stowed away on a ship before being recaptured in Narvik in Norway.
Prison, Borstal and Approved School escapees were a serious problem for the Isle of Wight in the mid-20th century. The matter was raised at the conference of Women’s Institutes in London on 15th June 1950.
The Isle of Wight housed 1,000 ‘male delinquents’ at that time and although escapes from the prison were rare as inmates were kept under lock and key, escapes from the borstal and approved school were said to have been ‘frequent’.
It was claimed that those absconding from such institutions would steal all the food and clothing they could take away leaving houses in a ‘state of chaos’, causing a great deal of ‘wanton damage’.
The husband of a member of the Women’s Institute had had his car smashed up by an escapee causing £50 worth of damage, the house of another member had been broken into, causing £80 worth of damage, and a further incident of housebreaking had resulted in £34 worth of damage – with all 3 incidents occurring in the previous year. Only a paltry sum of compensation (£7 10s) had been awarded to the victims of these crimes by the Borstal authorities in just one of the cases highlighted.
The Women’s Institute Conference overwhelmingly passed a motion demanding compensation for victims of crimes caused by escapees from prisons, borstals and approved schools.
Excellent interesting story.
I was surprised to read about 1,000 delinquents.
Makes one wonder if they ever left the island or
stayed.
You wouldn’t be surprised if you knew anything about social history…poverty has been producing ‘delinquents’ since time immemorial, and some of their ‘crimes’ ( at inception) were simply being homeless children with no parents.