by Dr. Iain
Corness
After
spending 25 years as a prison officer in the UK, Bill Johnstone retired to
Pattaya 15 months ago. He is one of the very rare people in this world who
can say, “I’m just happy as I am. I’ve got peace of mind. I don’t
wake up worrying about this and that. It’s nice.”
Bill (we’ll come to the Mosquito part later) was born
in a small Lancashire village, heavily involved in the textile industry.
His father worked in the cotton mill in a section known as ‘Strippers
and Grinders’ (which may go some of the way towards explaining why Bill
ended up in Pattaya, perhaps looking for the same here!).
His mother also worked part-time in the mill, and
Bill’s care as a young babe was ‘shared’ between his mother and the
lady next door, who worked the alternate shift in the mill.
He went to what is known as a Secondary Modern School,
and always in the ‘A’ stream, “But I was always told I could do
better,” said Bill with a laugh.
However, school was not really for him and he left at
age 15 to take up an electrical apprenticeship. However, after 12 months,
he blew a fuse when his employer insisted that Bill have his trendy
‘Beatles’ style hair cut short and left. “I packed it in, much to my
father’s disgust,” said Bill.
There was really nothing left for him to do, other than
go to work in the mill. After six months, a new apprenticeship scheme in
the textile industry was announced, with the concept of making a career
path for young talent. This was a five year scheme, involving both day and
night school, as well as mill work, and Bill thought he could see his
future in this. The local newspaper even featured him (so this is not the
first time he has been profiled) with the headline, “Local boy to be
Mill manager!”
This looked to be a good example of the ‘equal
opportunities’ principle, but Bill was soon to find that some were more
equal than others (thank you George Orwell’s book Animal Farm). After
five years, Bill was being used to show young university graduates the
ropes, who then all moved up the ladder to become assistant managers,
leaving Bill as someone who facilitated their rise in the company, but who
himself was left behind.
Rather than being left behind, Bill moved on, to join
the Osram organization. He began at the bottom again, as a night shift
laborer, moving quickly up into a day-time position, and then Bill, the
bright light, continued upwards to be ‘production foreman’. Bill
stayed nine years with Osram, but could see that the electrical industry
was heading towards a recession and began looking for another career.
He read an advertisement for the Prison Services. “I
don’t know who wrote the advert, but he obviously never worked there,”
said Bill with a laugh. However, this job offered a house as well, and
with Bill now having a young family, it looked an attractive career
opportunity. He applied and was accepted.
The training course was held at the famous Strangeways
Prison in Manchester, a facility with almost 2000 inmates. “It was right
next door to Strangeways brewery,” said Bill. “You could smell it in
the exercise yard. Nobody missed exercise!”
After his probationary period there was a choice of
prisons for the new prison officers. After years in Lancashire, Bill and
his family asked to go to the seaside, and he was sent to Portsmouth, to
the special prison for ‘lifers’ at Kingston.
I asked Bill a little about work as a prison officer,
especially with prisoners who had been sent down for life imprisonment. In
the 25 years that Bill worked there, many improvements were made to the
living standards of the prisoners, which many on the outside consider to
be mollycoddling people who have transgressed society’s standards. Bill,
however, disagrees. “They’re not there to be punished. Their
punishment is being there. Losing their freedom.” (When you look at it
that way, it does put a different slant on it, I have to agree.)
I also asked if it were more difficult working with
‘lifers’ who I presumed had nothing to lose. Again I had the wrong
impression, as Bill explained, “Life is 99 years in the UK, but the
sentence carries a recommendation from the judge for parole after so many
years. If the prisoner doesn’t play ball, he ain’t going anywhere. If
they use a bit of common sense, they can get out. It’s not like America
where they get life without the chance of parole.”
He had his fair share of threats, but Bill enjoyed his
time in the prison service. “There’s a most enjoyable camaraderie.
You’re part of a great team with a different sense of humor. Even with
the stresses, you spend a lot of time laughing.”
As his 25 years in the prison service wound down, he
had a couple of holiday trips to Pattaya and decided this was where he
would retire. With family responsibilities completed in the UK, he took
his pension, and here he is.
So what does our retired prison officer (he does not
like being called a ‘warder’) do here in Pattaya? “I love it here.
I’m going to school now learning Thai. I want to be able to talk to the
Thais.” He also enjoys a weekly game of golf, though his handicap is
still 28. “I enjoy it, and it’s a good crowd over here.” Other than
that he will sit in front of the computer and surf the net, “Google’s
my home page,” said Bill.
And now ‘Mosquito’ - on his second holiday trip to Pattaya he was
dreadfully bitten by mosquitoes and did not know what to do. He asked Kim
Fletcher, Pattaya’s notorious landlord, what he should do and Kim
immediately wheeled him up to the Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital, and thereafter
christened him ‘Mosquito’ Bill!
