Buckinghamshire Mental Hospital, Stone

[Heike]

Dear all,

I have just received some certificates from the GRO - always exciting :-). One, though, left me a bit sad. According to his death certificate, my great-grandfather died in the "Mental Hospital Stone", which turns out to be the St. John's Hospital in Stone, at the time of his death (1937) called Buckinghamshire Mental Hospital.

Now, I'm curious to know why my great-grandfather was there and checked where I could access patient records, which is at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. They have a great website, but in the catalogue I couldn't find these records. The Centre provides research services for a fee of 25 GBP per hour, which would be my last resort. I don't know how many hours they'd need and money is a bit tight at the moment, it was already a splurge to order the GRO records.

Anyway - here are my questions: has anyone researched ancestors who were at that hospital and knows whether the Centre in fact has patient records? I don't live in Great Britain, so can't just go and visit. Or does anyone have experience with using the Centre's research service? Or does anyone even know yet another way of finding out what brought him there - online records, someone who researches patient records there anyway and could help for a fee....anything? Does anybody have information on what it was like at the hospital in the 1930s? I have a somewhat grim picture of mental hospitals in those days :-(.

Many thanks for your help and advice!

[stepives]

Yes, they do hold records for The Bucks, Asylum at Stone. BUT......I'm am not sure if you can access those that occur later than 1911(the 100 year rule), and also patients privacy may come into question.

I also had a relative, in fact several, who were patients there in the 19th, and early 20th century. I have recently received their admittance and discharge records where they apply.
I have one relative being buried at the asylum, in 1898. The other died in 1941 at the Asylum, having been admitted there in August of 1881, as a 15 year old. (Death cert purchased).

The records are not indexed, so it would be a case of a manual search through them.

Being a member of the BucksFHS, it entitles me to 2 hours of research(per year), by volunteer members of the Society.

So you may find admittance records, if your relative was admitted around that time period.

In later years that you mention, it was more of a Mental Hospital, than an asylum. My Uncle was admitted there, around the 1950's and stayed there until his death in the 1970's. (There is a horrific story attached to my Uncle, as to why he was there. And he was clearly never mentally ill.).


Steve.

[Peter Goodey]

Even though records for the 1930s would be closed for public browsing, you have a right to copies of anything relating to your ancestor under Freedom of Information legislation. I would advise writing to them for an estimate explaining your relationship and providing his date of death.

[Heike]

Dear Steve and Peter,

many thanks for your replies, they were very helpful :-).

I have to admit I didn't even think about the 100-year-rule, so that was a good point. We do have a similar law like the Freedom of Information legislation here in Germany, so it's good to hear that this could apply to this case as well.

It might sound silly as I have never met my great-grandfather, but it did unsettle me to hear that he died in a Mental Hospital, as everything I read about the history of Psychiatry doesn't make me think those hospitals were placed where he was really helped, if he was having psychiatric problems at all. Steve, what you mentioned about your uncle sounds awful, though not surprising. There were so many cases of people who had no mental illness or at least none that warranted a stay in a mental hospital (I don't know if you ever read the book "The Lives they left behind" - quite shocking how people were kept in a mental hospital for decades for no reason).

Steve, did I understand correctly that you asked the Centre to find those records for you? Was that possible within the two hours free research time? (Just trying to get a feel for how long the research could take).

Peter, thanks also for the advice about asking them for an estimate. I have his death certificate, so that should be no problem.

[stepives]

I get 2 hours research free a year, because I'm a paid up member of Bucks Family History Society(£14 per year). This would be by a BucksFHS member or volunteer, and requested via the BucksFHS web site.

Quote; 'A search of a specific type of record will be undertaken for members by Volunteers at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (CBS) in Aylesbury.
For each member the time spent on searches will be limited to two hours per annum. Further time may be made available to a member with a request for a donation to the Society's funds.

Requests should be sent by email to the Search Service with details of the type of record and the time period to be searched together with the member's Membership Number. Searches will normally be undertaken and the results reported back to the member within 14 days'.


Steve.

[Emma Taplin]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the late reply and have to admit now that I don't have any help for your specific relatives, but I thought you might be interested to hear a little about the hospital. Interestingly my Grandad was principal tutor at St. John's mental hospital (formally the asylum) I believe he started working there after the 2nd world war ended, and continued there until his retirement in the late 1970's. Unfortunately he passed away 10 years ago but used to delight in telling us all about the hospital, and the kind of patients that were housed there. He has written his memoirs detailing a few of them but its been a time since I read them.
If its any help, certainly in the post war era of the hospital I don't believe it was the awful place we'd all imagine a mental institution to be. my grandad was a medic in the war and was originally employed at St. John's as he was tall & stocky - perfect if any of the patients became aggressive, but I rarely heard tales of very aggressive, scary patients, it seemed that lots of the patients were admitted due to depression and lesser mental illnesses, although it is true to say lots of them were in there until their deaths. The hospital was situated in the centre of the village of Stone, and the village was very much involved in all aspects of it. Most of the staff lived in the village, and many of the patients were free to roam the village if they were deemed safe enough (for their own safety) they were also given jobs around the hospital, gardening etc. My Dad grew up in Stone while my grandad worked at the hospital - and my nan was a nurse there - and it was very accepted that the patients were part of the community, my dad and other hospital families would play in the grounds and join in with other activities that the patients were also involved in, so much so that when my parents got married they had their wedding reception in the hospitals main hall- with the patients looking on, this always makes me smile.
I hope this helps in some way, good luck with your research.
Emma

[Heike]

Hello Emma,

many thanks for your reply and for the very interesting information. It does help me a lot. I have read so much about horrible mental hospitals, though I do know that not all were horrible. To hear that St. John's Hospital was one of the better ones after the war and probably also in the 1930s, when my great-grandfather was there, is comforting. It's interesting what you write about many of the patients suffering from depression, it would actually not be so surprising if a family ancestor was suffering from it. It's good to know that even if he was suffering from it, he was in a good hospital and had a chance to be involved with the community.

It's a pity that I probably won't be able to get definite information about his diagnosis, but at least I now have a more positive feeling about the whole issue.

Many thanks to you and also to the others who contributed to this thread. :-)

[Felix.mikolajsk]

Hello, I was wondering if you were ever able to find answers to your question. I found out that after spending some time in that institution he committed suicide in 70's. I managed to gain some admitting documents from the Buckinghamshire Archives, but nothing specific. The only solid piece of information comes from the death certificate.

[christanel]

Welcome to the Brit-Gen forums Felix.mikolajsk
Unfortunately the original poster Heike is no longer a member of Brit-Gen (as indicated by the word 'Guest' under their user name), so we do not keep any information for them which means thy will not receive any contact about your post.
This is the link to The National Archives site with information about the hospital and what records are available and where.
Christina