ROBERT BURNS MCFADDEN Straight talking, loyal, honest, inspirational, infuriating, loving and proud. Bob was all of these and more. I am sure we all have many memories of him. I first met him at a rugby match in Leicester nearly 30 years ago and Bob gave the pre-match team talk, warning us all to be on our best behaviour, the match kicked off and within 30 seconds Bob was scrapping with one of the opposition’s forwards. I would bump into him over the next few years including a rugby match at Hinckley under floodlights, where I saw him give an outstanding captains performance leading by example. In the mid eighties Bob and I worked together at Welford Road prison, this was where I learnt a new phrase “Bob put him down”. Many memories such as when he decided that we would introduce Charlie Bronson to the delights of indoor football and the look in Bronson’s face when Bob clattered him into the wall. One day upon returning a class back to the wing, whilst I was banging some prisoners up, Bob was summoned to the centre to be confronted by a very irate PO, he said Mr McFadden the telephone operator has just received a phone call from a prisoner in the gym office asking if someone would please go back and let him out as he was going to miss his dinner. We would train NEPO’S or POELTS and one of the delights we gave them was a gentle jog along the canal tow path. This particular day, as we approached a bend in the path, Bob said “right lads when we get round the next corner everybody jump in the canal” never thinking for one moment that anybody would – but one did and we had to rescue him. Bob was very proud of his Scottish roots and the fact that he could sing, on many occasions sat in the office we would be subjected to some obscure Scottish folk songs – the look on our faces never seemed to deter him. Over the years I’ve worked with many PEI’s, all with different qualities, but I can say with upmost sincerity Bob was undoubtedly the most inspirational Instructor on the gym floor, able to motivate a class like no other and woe betide anyone who stepped out of line. I’ve met many prisoners who passed through Glen Parva and Leicester and most would say “is the –bleep- McFadden still there”, it was said with a smile and healthy respect. In 1989 the special Olympics were held in Leicester and it is a little known fact that Bob, more than anyone else, worked so hard and gave up so much of his own time in the months preceding the games to organise the Prison Services involvement – not least the setting up of a campsite outside Leicester for 80 prisoners and staff. The games were a roaring success, the Prison Services involvement in Special Needs went from strength to strength and a great deal of this was down to Bob’s time and effort, unfortunately the plaudits went elsewhere. Bob represented the Prison Service at Rugby, Basketball and Football, and he was known to a generation of trainee PEI’s as Mr Basketball taking them through their basketball course at Lilleshall. The finest memory of our time together at Welford Road was when I met the love of his life – Jeanette – and his children – Angela and Barrie. Bob would invite my family to his house on a Friday night for fish and chips and we would then retire to Glen Parva social club. I remember one night Bob and I spent ages trying to convince Angela that she would not always be a “BROSSETTE”, and on more than one occasion Bob and I getting a right rollicking from Sadie the barmaid for not behaving ourselves. Some of you may have questioned my statement that Bob represented the Prison Service at football but it’s true. Three years ago it was decided to enter a team at the World Police and Fire Service Games in Adelaide playing Indoor Football. The team was entered but as the months went by players started to drop out and it became apparent that the average age of the squad was steadily creeping up, such Prison Service football legends as Alex Scott and Gerry Bee were on the team sheet. Speaking to Bob one day on the phone, telling him our predicament he volunteered his services. On the first day of the tournament Bob turned to me and said this is not so much a Football squad but more like a cast from the film Cocoon!!, he had a point. We did very well, finishing mid table in our group with Bob scoring two goals against the Australians. After the games Bob & Jeanette, Alex & Sandy Scott, Janet and myself set off on what Jeanette rightly called an adventure of a lifetime, touring Australia and Singapore, with Bob trying to see every sight in five minutes, pointing out to more than one waiter how they could improve their service, rocking a cable car until the girls were screaming their heads off and arranging a staged ejection from Raffles Hotel, this being photographed by two very interested Japanese Tourists. Those were just a few memories of Bob and no doubt there will be hundreds more told later. I would like to say thank you to Jeanette for giving me the honour to talk about Bob today. What was always obvious from the first day Bob introduced me to Jeanette was her total devotion to him and the tremendous love they had for each other, the love he had for Angela and Barrie, and more recently the love for his Grandchildren Lois Pearl (Pearly as he called her), Joe Robert, India Rose and Tessie. Also the support his son-in-law Gary has given the family over the past weeks has been fantastic. I’m sure the love they all share and the support they can give each other will help get them through this very sad time. Personally I have lost a true friend who I will sorely miss, but knowing Bob as we all do, he would not want us to be sad but instead remember the good times we had with him and to celebrate his life. Goodbye Bob and God bless. By Nigel Masters (read at Bob’s Funeral 12/10/01)