Timeline

Institution news The first school for ‘imbeciles’ The Bicetre opened in Paris.

Legislation and Policies Poor Law (Reform) Act.

Institution news Publication of William Twinings pamphlet: Some Account of cretinism, and the institution for its cure…   Some account of cretinism, and the institution for its cure, on the Abendberg near Interlachan, Switzerland. The importance of this is five-fold: (1) It brought Guggenbuhl’s work at Abendberg to the attention of a British audience; (2); It suggested that ‘cretinism’ (and by extension, idiocy and imbecility) was curable; (3) It described the nature of the treatment that was required; (4) It drew attention to the importance of the physical environment as the necessary context for effective treatment; (5) It pointed to…

Legislations and Policies Lunacy Act. Poor Law Amendment Act.

Institution News School for Imbeciles in Bath opens.

Institution News Asylum for Idiots Park House, Highgate opens

Institution News Essex Hall, Colchester opens – sister institution to Park House.

Baldovan Orphanage and Asylum, Dundee, established by Sir John Ogilvy, 9th Bt. Inverquharity and Lady Jane Howard Ogilvy.

Foundations stone laid for the Baldovan Orphanage and Asylum. H.M Queen Victoria and H.R.H Prince Albert become patrons of the institution.   7th July, 1853. Laying of the Foundation Stone of the Orphanage and Asylum for Imbecile Children, July 7th at a ceremony organised and presided over by the Dundee branch of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and following the Freemasons rites. [Note that the inscription on the Foundation Stone refers only to the Asylum and not the Orphanage] The Foundation Stone of this Building, erected by Sir John and Lady Jane Ogilvy, As an Asylum for the Treatment of…

World Event Crimean War started.

30th November Baldovan Orphanage opens for 30 children from the Scottish Episcopal Church. A Matron and a Housekeeper were appointed.

Institution News Essex Hall becomes Eastern Counties Asylum, (England) Edinburgh School for training of imbecile children opens.

Institution News The 1857 Lunatic Asylums (Scotland) Act, 20 & 21 Vict. Cap. 71.formulated on the same basis as the 1853 English act..   The 1857 Lunatic Asylums (Scotland) Act, 20 & 21 Vict. Cap. 71.formulated on the same basis as the 1853 English act.. It established the General Board of Commissioners of Lunacy: “It was their responsibility, as civil servants, to ‘provide for the building of district asylums for the reception of pauper lunatics, and to insure the proper care and treatment of lunatics generally, whether placed in asylums or left in private houses under the care of relatives…

Revision of original rules of the asylum.   Revision of the original rules for the governance of the asylum. The rule barring the admission of children over the age of 10 is formally abandoned, as it was regarded as ‘inadvisable to enforce’. At the same time the rule that the period of residence shall not be less than 5 years was also abandoned, being “impossible to maintain.” [Jubilee Report. 16] Read more

Learning disability Event Formation of Society for the Education of Imbecile Children in Scotland.

Death of Lady Jane Ogilvy. Establishment of a Visiting Committtee for the Asylum. Establishment of a Visiting Committee for the Asylum (consisting of selected Directors) with the task of “visit[ing] the asylum on the afternoon of the first Tuesday in every month, and oftener, if necessary….and exercise[ing] a general superintendence over the whole establishment, receive complaints, inspect the food, clothing etc of the patients, and give the necessary orders”. The need for a Visiting Committee seems to have been prompted by the death of Lady Jane, who hitherto had exercised close supervision of the Institution.

Institution News Scottish National Institution for Idiotic, Epileptic and Imbecile Children, Larbert, opens.

Institution News Western Counties Idiot Asylum, Devon.

Orphanage moved to a new site and two original functions separated.

Institution News Normansfield opens (J L-D)

Responsibility for admissions passed from the directors to the medical superintendent.

Institution News Ireland becomes super of SNIIC. Royal Albert Asylum, Lancaster opens.

Institution News American Association of Superintendents of Institutions.

Legislation and Policies Idiots Act (Engand and Wales) distinguished ‘idiots’ and ‘imbeciles’ from ‘lunatics’.

Death of Sir John Ogilvy. Death of Dr David Greig ‘Physician in Ordinary’ he was replaced by his son, Dr David M Greig.   For a light- hearted obituary please view The Late Sir John Ogilvy    

Legislation and Policies The Lunacy Act – defined lunatic as meaning an ‘idiot or person of unsound mind’ thus embracing mental deficiency.

Resignation of Miss Reid (Matron/Governess) on the grounds of ill health.

Institution News State Institution for Feeble-minded of Western Pennsylvania.

Appointment of Miss Butter  as Superintendent.  Also assumed Miss Reids duties.

Opening of new buildings.   Opening of new buildings, which included an extension to the boys’ day room, “modern lavatory accommodation, a large and adequate schoolroom, and a dormitory for 16 children” – all at a cost of £2000+. These new facilities were immediately found to be inadequate to the need.

Learning Disability Events Foundation of the National Association for the Care of the Feeble-Minded.

Directors agree to move institution to Balmydown Farm to allow for growth.

Legislation and Policies Elementary Education (Defctive & Epileptic Children) Act (England and Wales).

Institution News Institute for Defective and Delinquent Men at Napanoch, NY.

18th October.  Administration Block Pavilion ready for occupancy of 200 children.  Dining Hall, Kitchen, Laundry, School and Cottages built. Old buildings remained in use.   Opening of new buildings, which included an extension to the boys’ day room, “modern lavatory accommodation, a large and adequate schoolroom, and a dormitory for 16 children” – all at a cost of £2000+. These new facilities were immediately found to be inadequate to the need.

Institution News Ely, Cardiff opens; Eastern Pennsylvania State Institution for the Feebleminded and Epileptic.

Legislation and Policies Royal Commission report on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded.   To “consider the existing methods of dealing with idiots and epileptics, and with imbecile, feeble minded, or defective persons not certified under the lunacy laws…..and to report as to the amendments in the law or other measures which should be adopted in the matter etc. Reported 1908. The Report provided the basis for the Mental Deficiency And Lunacy (Scotland) Act, 1913.

Licensed to take 160 children by the Board of Control.   The institution was licensed by the Board of Control to take 160 children. Resident staff included a Matron, 20 nurses, 8 servants, 1 gardener and 1 indoor workman.

Legislations and Policies The Education of Defective Children (Scotland) Act.   The Education of Defective Children (Scotland) Act.  A permissive act allowing local school boards, either alone or in combination, to make special provision for the education and medical inspection of ‘epileptic, crippled or defective’ children between the ages of 5 and 16. ‘Defective’ defined as children “who, not being imbecile, and not being merely dull or backward, are, by reason of mental or physical defect incapable of receiving proper benefit from the instruction in the ordinary school”.

Institution News Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded. Legislation and Policies Indiana  Eugenics Laws; Allowing Medical superintendents to approve sterilations to institutionalised persons deemed unfit to reproduce.

Legislation and Policies Report of Royal Commission on Care and Control of Feeble Minded.

Legislation and Policies Royal Commission on the Poor Laws.

Baldovan Asylum renamed Baldovan Institution. King accepts patronage.   “the connotations of the word ‘asylum’ which had come to mean something different from the functions of Baldovan at that time. There, it was felt that it would be better for the feelings of the patients and their families if the name was changed”.

Legislation and Policies Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act.   Mental Deficiency And Lunacy (Scotland) Act, remained the legislative basis for the organisation of mental handicap until its repeal by the 1960 Mental Health (Scotland) Act.  This Act created the categories of : (a)Idiots: i.e. to say, persons so deeply defective in mind from birth or from an early age as to be unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers; (b)Imbeciles: i.e. to say, persons in whose case there exists from birth or from an early age mental defectiveness not amounting to idiocy, yet so pronounced that they are…

Legislation and Policies Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act comes into operation.

World Event World War I broke out.

Resignation of Dr David M Greig. 229 children admitted.  Installation of Electric Light.   Resignation of Dr. David Greig as medical superintendent, ostensibly because of a new regulation requiring the medical superintendent to be resident at the Institution. This, and Dr Greig’s resignation may well have been prompted by a highly critical private report on the state of the Institution by the General Board of Control.

Appointment of Resident Medical Superintendent Dr DW Drummond. New Rules and Regulations published.

Formation of Institution companies of Boy Scouts and Cubs.

Learning Disability Event Establishment of the Scottish association for Mental Hygiene.

Formation of an Institution company of Girl Guides.

Institution News Gogarburn, Edinburgh opened.

Management of the asylum moves to Local authority control.   Baldovan Institution for the Treatment and Education of Defectives Order Confirmation Act, 22nd Dec. 1925. [15 & 16 Geo 5. Ch CXXX]. Creates an ‘Incorporation’ of 3 local authority District Boards of Control (the counties of Perth; Forfar & Kincardine, and Aberdeen) to assume responsibility for the management of the asylum, effectively changing its character from a quasi private, and comparatively small concern to that of a public institution with the potential to accommodate a significant increase in the number of inmates. The purpose of the Institution is defined as…

The Institution (Todhill) farm is re-configured as a pig and poultry farm providing training for 7 boys.

Legislation and Policies Mental Deficiency Act (England and Wales).

Dr Forbes appointed as Physician Superintendent.

Institution News Middlesex Colony for Mental Defectives (Harperbury) opens.

Legislation and Policies Local Government (Scotland) Act giving Local Authorities responsibility for provision of institutional care. Report of Royal Commission on Lunacy and Mental Disorder; Wood Report on Mental Deficiency of 1929.

World Events Start of The Great Depression.

Institutions Hedley Report: Dept Committee on Colonies for Mental Defectives.   Hedley Report: Dept Committee on Colonies for Mental Defectives. Committee appointed jointly by the Board of Control and Ministry of Health for England & Wales to consider “the essential structural requirements of a complete colony for mental defectives of all types, and to what extent the cost could be reduced by the adoption of semi-permanent or temporary buildings or other new methods of construction, having regard to the comparative cost of maintenance as well as the initial capital expenditure involved”.

Legislation and Policies Brock Report on Sterilisation.

Institutions Lennox Castle Certified Institution for Mental Defectives opens.

Legislation and Policies Education (Scotland) Act brought special education within remit of local education authorities.   Education (Scotland) Act: brought special education within the remit of local education authorities. It gave them a duty to assess children from the age of five and to report to the local health authority, for the purposes of the Mental Deficiency Act, any child that it considered incapable of being educated.66 The assessment was based on IQ tests and reinforced the notion that children whose IQ was below a certain level should be separated from other children. Although the intention had been that the…

World Events 2nd September – End of Second World War.

Legislation and Policies ‘Colonies’ become ‘hospitals’ within the new NHS (UK).

Institution News Willowbrook State School, Staten Island, New York opened. Legislation and Policies NHS (Scotland) Act.

Learning Disability Events 50,000 outside the law pamphlet published.   Publication of N.C.C.L. pamphlet 50,000 Outside the Law, which argued that wrongful certification and detention of patients was widespread, as too was the exploitation of patient labour both within institutions and through the practice of releasing patients on licence to private employers.

Appointment of Dr William Telfer as Physician Superintendent.

Legislation and Policies 1954-57 Royal Commission enquiry on Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Disorder.

Pavilions 8 and 9 completed. Dr Telfer on sick leave during summer, returned to work september.

Sudden death of Dr Telfer. Appointment of Dr Malcolm McRae as Physician Superintendent. Re-organisation of the hospital school to form tow departments – the educable and the ineducable but trainable.

Hospital renamed Strathmartine Hospital.   Hospital renamed Strathmartine Hospital. The physician superintendent had requested a name change (although not to ‘Strathmartine’) as far back as November, 1956, but the Board had been unwilling to agree to this for reasons which the minutes do not clarify. Nor is it clear why a change was agreed to on this occasion.

Legislation and Policies Mental Health Act.

Legislation and Policies Mental Health (Scotland) Act – repealed 1913 Mental Deficiency Act.   Mental Health (Scotland) Act. Repealed the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. The former categories of MD were abolished. The general term `mental disorder’ was provided to cover both mental illness and mental deficiency. The Mental Welfare Commission replaced the General Board of Control.  The functions of local authorities with regard to MD were extended. The Act was subsequently amended by the 1968 SWSA in respect to the duties of the local authority SWDs towards the mentally handicapped. One result of the act was an increase in the…

Major building works over 2 years.  Demolition of the original Baldovan Orphanage and Asylum building.  Joining of the Administration Building and three Pavilion Blocks by means of a corridor, it is renamed The Main Building.   Demolition of original premises and opening of the ‘new’ hospital with expanded facilities capable of accommodating 600 mentally deficient patients of all ages.

Institution News News of the World Ely scandal.   Conditions at Ely Hospital came to the attention of the world through the pages of the News of the World. It reported allegations of ill treatment of patients and pilfering by staff. The allegations were made by a nursing assistant at the hospital – a Mr Pantilides, then living in Ethel Street, in Canton. The public outrage which followed led to the setting up a committee of inquiry. Its chairman was to be Geoffrey Howe, QC, who went on to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and deputy Prime Minister to Margaret…

World Event Breaking Down the walls of Heartache by The Bandwagon was released.

Legislation and Policies Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Allegations of Ill – Treatment of Patients and other irregularities at the Ely Hospital, Cardiff.

Hector Fowlie appointed Physician Superintendent jointly with Liff. Second draft of the Constitution for the Division of Psychiatry published. Group Medical Staff Committee was formed. Summer evening classes introduced for residents. Little Cairnie and Strathkinnes become holiday homes for residents and staff.

Institution News Report of the Farleigh Inquiry.   Report of the Farleigh Hospital Committee of Inquiry, Cmnd 4557. [Tasker Watkins Chairman].  Farleigh was a long-term hospital in the west of England. It had started life as an early Victorian workhouse and some of the original buildings were still in use at the time of the enquiry. In the early 1970s it accommodated 270 “mentally handicapped and severely mentally handicapped” male adults, who for the most part lived an extremely physically and socially isolated existence, an isolation that extended to the hospital itself and its administration in respect to developments in…

Legislation and Policies Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped.

Institution News Services for the Mentally Handicapped Blue Book published.   Services for the Mentally Handicapped [SHHD/SED] Blue Book.  estimated that, in 1970, there were about 8,500 patients with learning disabilities in long-stay institutions (including in psychiatric as well as ‘mental deficiency’ hospitals). It calculated that 25% of these patients might be better catered for in hostels in the community (2,200 hostel places), which meant a continuing need for 6,300 long-term hospital beds. It committed Scotland to the same overall aims in respect to provision as E&W, but the E& W targets were to be achieved over a 10 year…

Learning Disability Event Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace film.

Institution News Report of enquiry into South Ockendon Hospital, Near London.

Legislation and Policies Education (Mentally Handicapped Children) Scotland Act extends right of all children regardless of disability.

Legislation and Policies The Way Ahead: The Health Service in Scotland.   The Way Ahead: The Health Service in Scotland: The Way Ahead.  This was a watered down version of similar priorities statements issued by DHSS and Welsh Office in the same year. It emphasized the need: (a) to provide Community Care through improved primary care and community health services; (b) to lessen the growth rate in the acute sector in order to finance spending on priority groups; and (c) to promote prevention and education.  

Institution News Report of enquiry into Normansfiled Hospital, Middlesex.

World Event The year of the 3 Pope’s. Grease was released.

Institution News Report of enquiry into Mental Handicap Nursing and Care. Legislation and Policies A better Life: Services for the Mentally Handicapped in Scotland. A Better Life: Services for the Mentally Handicapped in Scotland.[report by a Programme Planning Group of the Scottish Health Service Planning Council and the Advisory Council on Social Work. SHHD/SED Peters Report].Residential provision( both hospital and LA) was revised upwards: to 180/100,000 cf with 138/100,000 for E&W. While the report endorsed the principle of community based care for majority of MH and the need to avoid ‘inappropriate’ admissions to hospital, attitudes towards Community Care within Scottish…

Institution News Mental Health Act.

Mid 80s Beginning of hospital decommissioning.

Legislation and Policies Mental Health (Scotland) Act.

Legislation and Policies Audit Commission Making a Reality of Community Care.

Legislation and Policies Community Care: Agenda for Action (Griffiths Report).

Legislation and Policies White Paper Caring for People: Community Care in the Next decade and Beyond.   White Paper Caring For People: Community Care in the Next Decade and Beyond. [Cm 849]:  “Community Care means providing the services and support which people who are affected by problems of ageing, mental illness, mental handicap or physical or sensory disability need to be able to live as independently as possible in their own homes,or in ‘homely’ settings in the community.The Government is firmly committed to a policy of community care which enables such people to achieve their full potential.” [1.1.].

Legislation and Policies NHS and Community Care Act.

World Event First elections for black South Africans following the end of Apartheid.

Legislation and Policies Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act. The same as you? A Review of services for people with learning disabilities.   The same as you? A review of services for people with learning disabilities. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive.  A key recommendation of The same as you? was that all the remaining long-stay hospitals should close by March 2005 with the exception of a small number of places for people with learning disabilities who required assessment and treatment or those on statutory orders.

Establishment of a Hospital Retraction Group to oversee Decommissioning. Resettling of residents from Wards 2/3.   May: Establishment of A Hospital Retraction Group to oversee the process of decommissioning. The core group membership covered clinical, support services, projects, trade union and estates. There was no representation from records/information management on the core group and while there was documented input from NHS Tayside’s health records and information manager after the presence of patient identifiable information was reported by a member of the public, the extent to which records/information management had input or influence into the site clearance process was unclear. The…

Legislation and Policies Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century.

Closure. Community Child Health Team. Some areas remain open. Site sold to a property developer.

Legislation and Policies Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act.

A member of the local community wrote to Historic Scotland and requested that the Main Building was considered for listing. Historic Scotland adds the Main Building to the register.

Legislation and Policies Mental Capacity Act.

Legislation and Policies Mental Health Act.

Legislation and Policies The keys to life – Improving Quality of Life for People with Learning Disabilities.

Legislation and Policies Kings Fund: An ordinary Life.