Agnes Curran on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Agnes Curran MBE (12 February 1920 – 29 September 2005) was a British prison governor. She was the first female prison governor of a UK prison for men
She became a mental health nurse and rose to be deputy matron of Ravenscraig Hospital. She then studied nursing administration. Curran had volunteered to work in prisons and in 1969 she joined Gateside prison for women as assistant governor. The prison closed in 1974 and she was moved to
accessed 23 July 2017
/ref>
Life
Curran was born, Agnes Brennan, inGourock
Gourock ( ; gd, Guireag ) is a town in the Inverclyde council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its main function today is ...
in 1920. She was the eldest of nine children.
She became a mental health nurse and rose to be deputy matron of Ravenscraig Hospital. She then studied nursing administration. Curran had volunteered to work in prisons and in 1969 she joined Gateside prison for women as assistant governor. The prison closed in 1974 and she was moved to HM Prison Cornton Vale
Cornton Vale is a women's prison in Stirling, operated by the Scottish Prison Service. Built in 1975, Cornton Vale comprises a total of 217 cells in its 5 houses. It accepted solely convicted women and girls from 1975 until 1978. In 1978 Parlia ...
.
In 1979 she became the governor of Dungavel prison. She was the first female prison governor of a prison for men in Britain. Curran was surprised to be appointed and she had to deal with the attitudes taken by male staff and prisoners to a woman governor. She realised that the staff only ran the prison because the prisoners allowed it. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
in 1984.
Curran died in Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...
in 2005 days after her second husband, Edward had died.Anne Worrall, ‘Curran , Agnes (1920–2005)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2009; online edn, Jan 201accessed 23 July 2017
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Agnes 1920 births 2005 deaths People from Greenock