Mental Health Issues were huge back in Victorian London. Families lived in cramped conditions and life was tough. The Workhouse and the Asylum were places to be feared as this was where those with mental health issues such as Senile Decay or Depression ended up. Also young people with Schizophrenia or conditions like Autism that were not well recognised or treated could often end up placed in these awful places. The lady in the photograph is Margaret Radley of Bermondsey. Born in 1866, she married on Christmas Day in 1887. In December of 1889 she gave birth to a little boy. Her husband was a Traveller, ex-navy man who appears to have stolen from his employer around that time. By 1890 Margaret appears to have been suffering from post-natal depression. Her husband had cheated on her before the birth and after the birth of her son and fathered other children with the other woman and Margaret found ou; potentially she could be out on the street if her own family wouldnt take her in. She threatened her husband, her own life and that of the child as depression took hold according to her notes. In the early 1890s it was possible for a husband to apply to have his wife committed to an Asylum. That is exactly what happened to this poor lady. First admitted after the birth of her child, on her admission papers it states that the cause of madness was pregnancy with hereditry factors. In 1891 she and her husband still reside at the same address but struggling to cope with him, Margaret had placed the baby with his grandmother. Her husbands mother was living with them. By 1893, she would have been easy to have re-admitted as by then she would have been seen as having a history! Reading her admission it would appear to the doctors that she was the party at fault. What it doesnt say was her husband lied, stole, cheated throughout his whole life. Desperation is a terrible thing. Margaret remained in an institution for the rest of her life. In 1915 her only child, by then a Merchant Sailor, was killed when a ship he was on blew up. She had grandchildren and one of these visited her up to the time of her death at Colney Hatch Asylum in 1940. She was described by her as being lucid, clever at crosswords and sad. The medical professionals made no attempt at rehabilitation. Her notes call her slow and dimwitted at times and yet she was literate. Finally on some entries later on a doctor appears to question all that is written in her notes previously but by then she was firmly institutionalised. An article in the Mail below discusses the same issue. dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2141741/Sent-asylum-The-Victorian-women-locked-suffering-stress-post-natal-depression-anxiety.html
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 07:00:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015