Lady Martha Bruce, who has died aged 101, was the pioneering governor of the first purpose-built prison for women in Scotland. Her innovative ideas still shape the Scottish Prison Service’s approach to supporting women in custody today and were informed by a career that began in the military during the second world war.
In 1975, Martha was appointed the first governor of HMP and YOI Cornton Vale, Stirling, Scotland’s only all-women prison. She oversaw the planning of this new model facility based on what a subsequent governor described as her idea that “women in custody and officers in the unit could build supportive relationships in small groups, eating and socialising together in somewhat homelike environments”.
