WARDER’S DISMISSAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 October 1928, Page 2

WARDER’S DISMISSAL

EXHAUSTED MAN’S STORY. The attention of the British Home Office has been drown to the case of Mr J. J. a temporary warder at Brixton Prison, who was dismissed for sleeping on duty. Mr Corboy,' exhausted and weak from four sleepless nights nursing his wife, who was ill following the sudden death of their three-year-old son, was compelled by force of circumstances to go on duty. He had _ already lost four nights’ pay for being absent,' and could not afford to stay away any longer. A few minutes before that night’s duty terminated he fell asleep, and was dismissed. The man was turned out penniless to a sick wife and three children. Mr Corboy, who was a sergeant in the Irish Guards, aplied to the Sunday Express for his employment, and reluctantly revealed his story. “I am not grumbling at the treatment I have received from the individual,” he said. “I was simply a victim of regulations. On the night in question I was in charge of a hospital ward where there were fifteen men, two of them on capital charges and three with suicidal tendencies. It was essential these men should bo kept under close observation. “Five days previously my child, aged three, had been taken ill with diphtheria. He died in two days. I

was suspended as a diphtheria r and the next , few days, for which 1 received no pay, were a nightmare. My wife became seriously ill, and i was unable to leave her. During the next four days I had only a few hours sleep. - ’ , “On the fifth night I found myselt with no money, so I decided to go to work, ’ although I was exhausted physically and mentally. How I striiggled through I do not know. . The temperature in the ward was eighty degrees and almost unbearable. Every half-hour I had to peg a clock, and I kept this up through the night. I pegged up the clock for the last time and then sat down on a blanket at the gate for a few moments before I made my report. ■ “I must have fallen dead off to sleep, and a few minutes later I awoke, but apparently the orderly officer had seen me lying down as he passed the hospital gate. My wage for sixty holers a week was £2 12/-, and had it not been for the fact that I received no pay during my absence from duty, I should never have dreamed of going to the prison that night. “The governor said he was very, sorry for me. My record was clean, but he was compelled by the regula,tions to dismiss me.”