Early days in the London County Asylum

Judy Lester of Kerrywood Research found a 1911 census record listing a David Ritchie as one of the inmates of the London County Asylum in Hanwell, Middlesex. Aged 37, born in Tottenham, married and a butler, this David Ritchie was definitely our man.

This was his second year under lock and key. He had been admitted to the London County Asylum in June 1909, the year that Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole was forced to turn back and the department store Selfridges opened in London. What was life like for him within the institution's walls? Did he dread the heat of the approaching summer? Was he in touch with his wife Maude and son David Scott Ritchie Jr? There is no way of knowing for sure but I can certainly inform my imagination with facts.

The London County Asylum was opened in 1831 as a home for the treatment of insane paupers. For the first time, the government took responsibility for lunatics by covering the cost of their keep and shifting the emphasis from long-term care to treatment and recovery. The use of mechanical restraints was phased out in 1839, thanks to the progressively-minded superintendent John Conolly, who believed that kindness worked better than cruelty. There were courtyards in the centre of the building where patients could get fresh air and sunshine. Work was encouraged and the asylum had its own bakery, brewery and workshop for carpentry. Overcrowding was avoided by continually extending and improving the buildings.

Even though conditions at the asylum were fairly humane, however, David Ritchie Sr must have suffered. As I try to imagine what thoughts swarmed inside his mind, I am reminded of the fact that his young sister, Susan Elizabeth, died at the age of 11. Her death took place just 2 years after the 1891 census in which David had stated he was a junior clerk. Had that tragic event destabilised him? Was he somehow responsible for her death? Is that why he became a footman? Now, 18 years later, was his sleep disturbed by nightmares about demons feasting on his flesh, his daytime fantasies haunted by memories of how he treated Susan while she still lived? Perhaps he felt so guilty and worthless that he shook with fear at the thought of being released from the asylum's highly-regulated environment back into the chaotic and stressful world.

What, meanwhile, was everyone else in his family up to in 1911? I've mentioned before that his wife Maude was working as a cook in Brown Street. As for his son David Scott Ritchie Jr and his mother Emma Eliza Ritchie, those stories will have to wait for another day.

Photo credit: "Park bench" by Bradley Gordon

.