Alexander Paterson

Sir Alexander Henry Paterson MC (20 November 1884 – 7 November 1947), known to his friends as Alec Paterson, was a British penologist who, as Commissioner of Prisons, introduced reforms that would provide a humane regime in penal institutions and encourage rehabilitation among inmates. He was the main force behind the development of Borstals and gained an international reputation as a great prison reformer. Paterson was born in Bowdon, near Altrincham, Cheshire. His parents were staunch Unitarians and staunch Liberals, his father being the young churchill's electoral agent. He attended Bowdon College, the local private school for boys, and later studied at University College, Oxford where he obtained an honours degree in Greats. During his time at Oxford, he may have become an Anglican although he was not to be confirmed into the Church of England until 1908. Not long after he graduated, Paterson went to work with the Oxford Medical Mission, a Christian charity established by John Stansfeld ('the Doctor') which provided free medical treatment for the locals and ran youth clubs for underprivileged boys in Bermondsey, South London. He worked as an unpaid teacher in an elementary school, and served as a voluntary probation officer. He was also appointed by the Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, as assistant director of the Central Association for the Aid of Discharged Convicts, and was also involved with Borstal Association. He recounted his experiences in Bermondsey in his enormously successful and influential book, Across the Bridges, published in 1911. Paterson served in the Bermondsey Battalion (the Queens) of the London Regiment during World War I, enlisting as a private but reaching the rank of Captain and receiving a Military Cross. As a result of his close involvement in Talbot House during the Great War, he became the first chairman of the executive committee of the charitable organisation that grew out of it Toc H. In 1922, he was appointed Commissioner of Prisons and Director of Convict Prisons, a position he held until his retirement in 1946.