deceased mental patients

[OrbitalAthlete]

Greetings everybody,

Have recently discovered that a person, X, died in 1949 in Friern Hospital.
For those not in the know this was huge mental hospital for the county of Middlesex, also known as Colney Hatch, which closed in 1993.

X gave birth to a girl, Y in March 1927, who was brought up by an aunt, who told her that her mother had died when she was five years old. Her father appears to have abandoned her as well at the same time. Those darned family secrets and lies.

Y died in 2002 believing what she'd been told. She didn’t have any memory of her mother or her father.

Her son wants to know what happened and why his mother was lied to.

Possibly it was a case of the baby blues and away she was sent, never to be seen again.

Therefore it would be of great interest to him to discover when and why she was admitted to dot the 'Is' and cross the 'Ts''.

Is this possible, and if so how, or does the 100 years rule apply?

Thank you.

Any guidance would be welcome.

Mark

[Velma Dinkley]

Colney Hatch's archive of records are held at the London Metropolitan Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/n....asp?ID=O71707 so it may be worth contacting them http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corpo...s/feedback.htm re the 100 years rule. Usually this means 100 years after the last patient record in the ledger you will be looking at, so it could be considerably longer, unless the archive staff look it up for you.

[Olde Crone Holden]

What a sad, but not unusual story.

I think that Y's son can apply to see the records of X. There does appear to be a huge variety of responses to requests to see patient's records and you may have to do a bit of hoop-jumping.

Some people gain access very easily, others are told no, or told that the records have been destroyed. Go for it. People who have been given access can usually se the admissions register, which will be presented in such a way that no information can be seen about other patients, which is fair enough.

I don't think it was so much that Y was lied to. It was very common back then to tell a child their mother had died, rather than admit to the horror and shame of mental illness in the family. The lie was told with kind intent, if you like.

I lived for some years right opposite the Friern Mental Asylum (in the 60s). Although no one would choose to live there (I hope!) it wasn't as bad as you might suppose, but that's hardly the point, is it.

OC

[naomiatt]

A friend of mine found info for someone who was at Colney Hatch and it was within 100 years, so you might be fortunate..she was able to look in an Archives book herself at the LMA.

[OrbitalAthlete]

Thank you

That is most helpful

Mark

[OrbitalAthlete]

OC

What would happen if the person was eventually discharged? Probably reintroduced to the family as an aunt, which is terrible for both parties.
I agree that this was done "with the best intentions", but finding it out later has really infuriated my friend.
People are far more resilient than we tend to think, especially in those harsher days during and between the wars.

I know that if this was me, I'd be fit to be tied.

Mark

[OrbitalAthlete]

Incidentally, there were some voluntary patients.
There is a court case Bolam versus Friern Hospital 1957, regarding elecric shock treatment. Horrifying torture, if you ask me.
Mark

[Olde Crone Holden]

Oh, I agree with your fury, so would I!

The week before I got married, in 1967, my father sat me down and told me he had something very serious to tell me, which might affect either my decision to marry, or my decision to have children. A great great uncle, it transpired, had spent the last 47 years in a mental asylum. This poor chap had returned from WW1 a mental wreck and his wife told everyone he was dead - including his four children.

I pointed out to my father that this was hardly a hereditary condition anyway and left it at that, although my father advised me to say nothing to anyone, as "people don't like that sort of thing, you know".

Ridiculous Edwardian attitude of course, but he wasn't alone.

It was never intended that the patient would be eventually discharged. Until extremely recently - the 1980s - a family member would have needed to request the patient's discharge and that very rarely happened. In my case, the truth about my gg-uncle came out at a family gathering and caused the most immense upset to everyone concerned, not least because the poor chap had died and all opportunities were lost.

OC

[angelina]

Mark do get the death certificate it may shed some light on cause of death and also who next of kin was at the time. I did this for great uncle of mine who was in similar hospital and next of kin was his sister. he had been in the hospital for many many years, but the family didnt speak about it. took me ages to tack him down.

[Little Nell]

Until relatively recently there was a huge stigma attached to mental illness (and of course there still is today, although we are a bit more enlightened I hope). Many people were put into institutions because they were epileptic or had an illegitimate child or were just a bit eccentric and they stayed there forever because there was nowhere else for them and they became institutionalised so they couldn't cope with the outside world. I've just been reading a book about Broadmoor and most of the female patients there had killed their own children whilst clearly suffering from severe post-natal depression.

"Care in the community" would have been a great idea if there had been more resources available to make it work properly.

[OrbitalAthlete]

I do have the death cert..... Heart failure, lots of latin stuff [which I've checked but makes no sense] and pleurosy... dying aged just 43.

If it was to do with an illegitimate child, it was more than two years after her marriage. Having said that, it could also explain why hubby scarpered at pretty much the same time!!

Or did he?? And that is just the tale we have to decipher.

Mark:-)

[naomiatt]

I had a relative who was in an institution. Passed away a few years ago, and my cousin didn't know anything of it until he had a phone call out of the blue advising him of the death. Quite a shock, and to his credit, he arranged a full burial, stone etc.

[Mary from Italy]

I do have the death cert..... Heart failure, lots of latin stuff [which I've checked but makes no sense]

If you want to post the image on here, we can try and decipher it for you.

[OrbitalAthlete]

That's very kind, but not necessary. Took latin in school.

I looked up the medical terms, but didn't understand what they were to be honest, not being a medic, but did get the gist of it. There was no link at all to mental illness, purely physical.

Thanks

Mark :-)