Dr Geoffrey Pollitt

Formerly Principal Medical Officer, HM Prison, Wakefield, Yorkshire

Geoffrey Pollitt was born on 31 October 1920 in Glasgow, where his father ran a long-established paper business. He was educated at St Bees School, in Cumbria, between 1934 and 1938, and then at Queen's College, Cambridge, where he qualified MRCS Eng and LRCP Lond in 1945. The statutory pre-registration period was served as house physician at Herefordshire General Hospital.

After the Second World War, he joined the Royal Navy and served as Senior Medical Officer in HMS Concord during which time he saw action in the Korean War. But it was in 1961, then as promoted Surgeon Commander, that he was posted to Malta and first became involved in psychiatric practice: he set up one of the first specialist units in the Royal Navy to improve psychiatric care.

However, it was on return to ‘civvy street’ that he decided that psychiatry would be his life's work. He joined the prison service in 1965 and served with distinction until 1990, having gained experience in many of the major prisons, Brixton, Durham, Wakefield and Armley, for example.

His academic qualifications relative to psychiatry were: DPM 1958, DMJ 1966, MRCPsych 1971 and FRCPsych 1979.

Among fellow psychiatrists, Geoffrey Pollitt will always be remembered for his specialised knowledge of the psychopathology of arsonists. His fame for this subject resulted in frequent appearances as expert witness for the Crown in cases of arson, as well as a popular lecturer to learned societies.

After his retirement, he took on a second life as partner in a 100-acre dairy farm in the Yorkshire Dales together with his first wife, Judith Ann, who was the mother of their three sons: Michael, Robin and Simon. Geoffrey and Judith Ann were divorced, leading to the sale of their joint farm. As his second wife Geoffrey married Jill, who predeceased him in 2003.

As yet a third string to his bow, Geoffrey served as chairman of the Menwith-with-Darley parish council, in Nidderdale, for 7 years.

Geoffrey Pollitt died peacefully at his Norfolk home on 1 May 2009, aged 88, leaving behind him his three sons and a host of friends and colleagues.