Colonel Elspeth Isabel Weatherley Hobkirk, CBE RD LL.B, WRAC retired, former prison governor, died on August 21 aged 87. She was born on May 17, 1903.
Hobkirk was born into a life of service. Her father was Brigadier-General Clarence John Hobkirk, CMG, DSO, of Cleddon Hall, Trellech, Monmouthshire, where she spent her formative years. Her own life was distinguished by an immense capacity for service, which demanded firm self-discipline and often loneliness, yet she retained a sophisticated wit and perception. Underneath she was diffident and intuitive.
She became deputy director of the WRAC at the War Office in 1949; yet after her capacity for social service had been sharpened by her role as prison governor, she would quietly go by herself to visit the poor of Edinburgh, with blankets and food. She could relate to all classes, while remaining herself, yet had the capacity to draw people out without being patronising.
This is, of course, the stuff of real leadership, however disciplined the role she had to play. The girl who went to the London School of Art also trained pre-war to become a mechanic and how to drive army trucks. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and became a JP; thus the twin courses of her life were already established. She enrolled in the ATS in 1939 and served throughout the war, subsequently becoming deputy director at the War Office from 1947-9. Her last service posts were deputy director WRAC Eastern Command 1950-2 and vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board from 1950-2. She retired in 1952, but became the same year head warden of Bristol Royal Hospital. Both there and as prison governor, which she next became, she had to work up to 18 hours a day.
Those were the days when prison life was more rigidly hierarchical than now and the prison service, particularly on the male side, benefited, like the police, from having a pool of ex-service personnel able to make a disciplined system work. So in one sense it was not extraordinary that she should switch to the prison service. While relying on and encouraging her NCOs, she took pride in maintaining access to individual prisoners and supporting them as individuals.
She was in 1954 appointed as governor of the prison at Duke Street, Glasgow, but the female prisoners there were almost immediately moved to Greenock where she took over the governorship of the combined female prison and borstal institution and young offenders institute. Her calibre was quickly recognized and she was appointed in 1956 woman adviser to the Scottish Home and Health Department on conditions of detention of women and girls in Scotland. Her developing interest in social affairs was employed with her membership of the Government Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence from 1967-70. She retired from the Scottish Prison Service in August 1969 and for the next four years was chairman of the Civil Service Commission Panel of Interviewers.
Hobkirk was born into a life of service. Her father was Brigadier-General Clarence John Hobkirk, CMG, DSO, of Cleddon Hall, Trellech, Monmouthshire, where she spent her formative years. Her own life was distinguished by an immense capacity for service, which demanded firm self-discipline and often loneliness, yet she retained a sophisticated wit and perception. Underneath she was diffident and intuitive.
She became deputy director of the WRAC at the War Office in 1949; yet after her capacity for social service had been sharpened by her role as prison governor, she would quietly go by herself to visit the poor of Edinburgh, with blankets and food. She could relate to all classes, while remaining herself, yet had the capacity to draw people out without being patronising.
This is, of course, the stuff of real leadership, however disciplined the role she had to play. The girl who went to the London School of Art also trained pre-war to become a mechanic and how to drive army trucks. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and became a JP; thus the twin courses of her life were already established. She enrolled in the ATS in 1939 and served throughout the war, subsequently becoming deputy director at the War Office from 1947-9. Her last service posts were deputy director WRAC Eastern Command 1950-2 and vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board from 1950-2. She retired in 1952, but became the same year head warden of Bristol Royal Hospital. Both there and as prison governor, which she next became, she had to work up to 18 hours a day.
Those were the days when prison life was more rigidly hierarchical than now and the prison service, particularly on the male side, benefited, like the police, from having a pool of ex-service personnel able to make a disciplined system work. So in one sense it was not extraordinary that she should switch to the prison service. While relying on and encouraging her NCOs, she took pride in maintaining access to individual prisoners and supporting them as individuals.
She was in 1954 appointed as governor of the prison at Duke Street, Glasgow, but the female prisoners there were almost immediately moved to Greenock where she took over the governorship of the combined female prison and borstal institution and young offenders institute. Her calibre was quickly recognized and she was appointed in 1956 woman adviser to the Scottish Home and Health Department on conditions of detention of women and girls in Scotland. Her developing interest in social affairs was employed with her membership of the Government Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence from 1967-70. She retired from the Scottish Prison Service in August 1969 and for the next four years was chairman of the Civil Service Commission Panel of Interviewers.
Colonel Elspeth Isabel Weatherley Hobkirk, CBE RD LL.B, WRAC retired, former prison governor, died on August 21 aged 87. She was born on May 17, 1903.
Hobkirk was born into a life of service. Her father was Brigadier-General Clarence John Hobkirk, CMG, DSO, of Cleddon Hall, Trellech, Monmouthshire, where she spent her formative years. Her own life was distinguished by an immense capacity for service, which demanded firm self-discipline and often loneliness, yet she retained a sophisticated wit and perception. Underneath she was diffident and intuitive.
She became deputy director of the WRAC at the War Office in 1949; yet after her capacity for social service had been sharpened by her role as prison governor, she would quietly go by herself to visit the poor of Edinburgh, with blankets and food. She could relate to all classes, while remaining herself, yet had the capacity to draw people out without being patronising.
This is, of course, the stuff of real leadership, however disciplined the role she had to play. The girl who went to the London School of Art also trained pre-war to become a mechanic and how to drive army trucks. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and became a JP; thus the twin courses of her life were already established. She enrolled in the ATS in 1939 and served throughout the war, subsequently becoming deputy director at the War Office from 1947-9. Her last service posts were deputy director WRAC Eastern Command 1950-2 and vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board from 1950-2. She retired in 1952, but became the same year head warden of Bristol Royal Hospital. Both there and as prison governor, which she next became, she had to work up to 18 hours a day.
Those were the days when prison life was more rigidly hierarchical than now and the prison service, particularly on the male side, benefited, like the police, from having a pool of ex-service personnel able to make a disciplined system work. So in one sense it was not extraordinary that she should switch to the prison service. While relying on and encouraging her NCOs, she took pride in maintaining access to individual prisoners and supporting them as individuals.
She was in 1954 appointed as governor of the prison at Duke Street, Glasgow, but the female prisoners there were almost immediately moved to Greenock where she took over the governorship of the combined female prison and borstal institution and young offenders institute. Her calibre was quickly recognized and she was appointed in 1956 woman adviser to the Scottish Home and Health Department on conditions of detention of women and girls in Scotland. Her developing interest in social affairs was employed with her membership of the Government Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence from 1967-70. She retired from the Scottish Prison Service in August 1969 and for the next four years was chairman of the Civil Service Commission Panel of Interviewers.
Hobkirk was born into a life of service. Her father was Brigadier-General Clarence John Hobkirk, CMG, DSO, of Cleddon Hall, Trellech, Monmouthshire, where she spent her formative years. Her own life was distinguished by an immense capacity for service, which demanded firm self-discipline and often loneliness, yet she retained a sophisticated wit and perception. Underneath she was diffident and intuitive.
She became deputy director of the WRAC at the War Office in 1949; yet after her capacity for social service had been sharpened by her role as prison governor, she would quietly go by herself to visit the poor of Edinburgh, with blankets and food. She could relate to all classes, while remaining herself, yet had the capacity to draw people out without being patronising.
This is, of course, the stuff of real leadership, however disciplined the role she had to play. The girl who went to the London School of Art also trained pre-war to become a mechanic and how to drive army trucks. She joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and became a JP; thus the twin courses of her life were already established. She enrolled in the ATS in 1939 and served throughout the war, subsequently becoming deputy director at the War Office from 1947-9. Her last service posts were deputy director WRAC Eastern Command 1950-2 and vice-president of the Regular Commissions Board from 1950-2. She retired in 1952, but became the same year head warden of Bristol Royal Hospital. Both there and as prison governor, which she next became, she had to work up to 18 hours a day.
Those were the days when prison life was more rigidly hierarchical than now and the prison service, particularly on the male side, benefited, like the police, from having a pool of ex-service personnel able to make a disciplined system work. So in one sense it was not extraordinary that she should switch to the prison service. While relying on and encouraging her NCOs, she took pride in maintaining access to individual prisoners and supporting them as individuals.
She was in 1954 appointed as governor of the prison at Duke Street, Glasgow, but the female prisoners there were almost immediately moved to Greenock where she took over the governorship of the combined female prison and borstal institution and young offenders institute. Her calibre was quickly recognized and she was appointed in 1956 woman adviser to the Scottish Home and Health Department on conditions of detention of women and girls in Scotland. Her developing interest in social affairs was employed with her membership of the Government Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence from 1967-70. She retired from the Scottish Prison Service in August 1969 and for the next four years was chairman of the Civil Service Commission Panel of Interviewers.
Inscription
IN
MEMORY OF
BRIGADIER GENERAL
C. J. HOBKIRK D.S.O. C.M.G.
BORN JULY 16, 1869.
DIED SEPT. 9, 1949.
VERY DEARLY LOVED HUSBAND,
FATHER AND GRANDFATHER.
PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU.
MY PEACE I GIVE YO YOU. JOHN 14:27.
ALSO
IN MEMORY OF HIS WIFE
NORA LOUISA HOBKIRK
BORN 1872
DIED 1958
AND THEIR DAUGHTER
COLONEL ELSPETH HOBKIRK, C.B.E. T.D. LL.D.
LATE WRAC, BORN 1905 DIED 1990
HER ASHES LAID TO REST 1992
Gravesite Details
The ashes of her grandniece, Sarah Fiona Bridget (Hobkirk, Batchelor) Stone (1935–2003), who died in Hong Kong on 19 December 2003, were interred here on 18 November 2004.
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