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Peter Timms, our cherished friend and colleague, was born in Barnsley, England, and became involved in the family fish and chips business, before working as a painter and decorator. He went on to study and become ordained as a Methodist Minister. Given his passion and dedication to humans, and particularly those carrying especially heavy life burdens, he started working in prisons. He served in various prisons including Wormwood Scrubs, Brixton, Liverpool, and Wakefield and he was the first Governor of the Young Offenders Institution in Glen Parva, Leicester. He was awarded the silver medal as spokesperson for the Prison Governors of the United Kingdom, a role he held for twenty-one years. Peter was Governor of Maidstone Prison from 1975 to 1981, a prison housing those serving very long sentences. One of his many remarkable achievements was opening the first prison wing dedicated to the treatment of sex offenders when he was Governor of Maidstone Prison.
During the 1990s he was instrumental in setting up Prison Rule 43 for vulnerable prisoners which states any prisoner can ask to be segregated from association with other prisoners if they fear for their safety. Peter was always an advocate of an enlightened approach towards prisoners and for prisons to benefit all in society. Certain high-profile cases highlighted to him the importance of life-sentence prisoners being subject to judicial process and their fate being removed from the discretion of the Home Secretary.