Joan Scruton

'Right hand woman’ of Sir Ludwig Guttmann

Born in 1918 in Yorkshire and died on 1st November 2007.

Joan was Sir Ludwig Guttmann's assistant at the Spinal Injuries Unit at Stoke Mandeville. She later became secretary general for the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF). She shared Guttmann's vision for the development of sport for disabled people and worked with him to develop Paralympic Sport. In the late 1980s she worked with other sport organisations to establish the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Sir Philip Craven, Past President of the International Paralympics Committee:

Joan made it happen and interpreted Sir Ludwig's many visions and without them the Stoke Mandeville Movement that has become the Paralympic Movement may never have got off the ground.

Joan Scruton MBE ©WheelPower

Background

Joan Scruton was born in Yorkshire in 1918. In May 1942 she began working as a civil servant in charge of the typing pool at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital in Stoke Mandeville.  At this time the hospital was admitting convoys of wounded servicemen and women injured in the Second World War.

In February 1944 Dr Ludwig Guttmann founded the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville at the request of the British government in preparation for the Normandy landings in June 1944.  Guttmann dictated his medical reports to Joan who became so interested in his work that she asked to transfer to Stoke Mandeville as a secretary.  Guttmann and Joan would then work together until his death in 1980. 

Paralympic involvement

During her time at Stoke Mandeville, from 1944 to 1968, Joan was the administrator at the National Spinal Injuries Centre and supported Guttmann’s work to develop Paralympic sport. She was part of the organising team for the annual National Stoke Mandeville Games and the International Stoke Mandeville Games when they started in 1952.  Joan was involved with the International Games until 1968 and then secretary general of the International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (ISMWSF) from 1975 to 1982 which was formed with Guttmann as president. The first Paralympic Games took place in Rome in 1960, and then Tokyo in 1964 and Israel in 1968.

In 1968, Joan was seconded to the Paraplegic Sports Endowment Fund to raise funds for the building and establishment of the Stoke Mandeville sports stadium. The stadium was opened in 1969 by Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. Joan then become employed as secretary general by the British Paraplegic Sports Society, which ran the stadium as a venue for national and international Games and sporting activities for disabled adults and children. Plans were being laid and funds were being sought to build an Olympic Village adjacent to the stadium. When, sadly, Guttmann died suddenly in March 1980, Joan was promoted to become director/secretary general. The Olympic Village was opened in 1981.

Joan Scruton MBE (right) being presented with the Pursuit Trophy from Paralympian Rosa Schweizer 
for her work with the Paralympic Movement,1984. ©WheelPower

In March 1988, Joan retired from the British Paraplegic Sports Society but continued to work full time as secretary general of the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF) on an honorary basis, until she retired from this post in 1993.

In the late 1980s she worked with other sport organisations to establish the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Achievements and Awards

For the May 1979 publication of Paraplegia, Joan wrote the article Sir Ludwig Guttmann: Creator of a world sports movement for the paralysed and other disabled. You can read the article here. © 1979, International Spinal Cord Society. 

Joan wrote the book Stoke Mandeville: Road to the Paralympics about her role in the Paralympics which was published in June 1998.

National Paralympic Trust Archives, cover of the book by Joan Scruton. 

Tribute to Joan by Philip Harris, Editor of Paraplegia journal, in 1994. 

Joan was awarded an MBE in 1975, and in 1999, she received a Paralympic Order for her outstanding and long-lasting contributions to the Paralympic Movement.

Sir Philip Craven:

We owe a great debt to both Sir Ludwig and Joan Scruton.

 References

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