HATRY THE SILENT

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1933, Page 8

HATRY THE SILENT

ENGLAND’S MODEL PRISONER

SOON TO LOOSE CLOSE FRIEND

Maidstone Gaol now houses several of the most talked of prisoners of modern times—-Clarence H.atry, Daniels, the ex-financier’s companion in business, ox-L-ieutenant Baillie Stewart, Leopold and David Harris, and other fire raisers.

But of them all Clarence Hatry is the loneliest. He is quiet, says the Sunday Express. For in a few mont.ns Daniels, his only friend in the gaol, will be released. Hatry will be left to face long and weary years of imprisonment alone.

All the time Hatry has clung to Daniels as his one comrade and solace. The prison officers, who like and respect Hatry because he is a good worker and does not attempt to curry favour, fear lor the ex-financier’s health. They say they believe that when Daniels goes Hatry will break down. Even when his companions in crime, Tabor and Dixon, were in t’:*gaol, Hatry never spoke to them. It was only Daniels.

Recently Hatry reported sick for several weeks, nut he lias recovered. In physical bearing he is much stronger aiid better developed. At his work in the printing shop he has become most effeient. liis bookbinding is cited by the instructors as an example to new convicts. He has bound many of the books now in the prison library.

Whereas most of the convicts endeavour to do as little as possible in the most time, Hatry goes steadily on with his work. He does not speak to his fellow-workers at the bench. “Hatrv the Silent” they call him. On Sunday afternoons, when there is an hour of conversational exercise, at which the convicts are allowed to choose a companion, Entry always falls uit-o step with Daniels. No one in the gaol would think of separating them. It is Ha-try’s one hour of happiness. So highly do the warders think, of Hatry that Leopold Harris, when he arrived, was advised to model himself on him. Nobody in the whole history of the gaol has ever better adapted himself to circumstances. Hatry’s only visitors to the gaol all the year round are his wife and son. Clarence Hatry was sentenced in January f . 1230 to 14 years’ imprisonment.