During the course of tracing my ancestors I've looked at a few census records.
In the 1891 census people could be classified as .........
(1) Deaf and Dumb
(2) Blind
(3) Lunatic, Imbecile or Idiot
In the 1911 census, the categories had been altered to ...........
(1) Totally Deaf, or Deaf and Dumb
(2) Totally Blind
(3) Lunatic
(4) Imbecile or Feebleminded.
Nothing has changed since then ~ some people still come into those categories!
|
|
The last two categories were pretty prevalent for me when acting as a Collector.
|
|
IIRC the judge in the Court of Protection was titled Master in Lunacy until the mid 20th century.
|
I had an odd experience last year. When I was a youngster my great-uncle was incarcerated in the county lunatic asylum. He wasn't really mad but thought he was Lord St Audries and eventually got on the family's nerves. Anyway, eventually he died and the funeral was in the chapel at the asylum - an odd Victorian gothic place that even had separate entrances for the lunatics and the general public.
Last year we stayed with a long-lost friend at what seemed a familiar address. Turns out the asylum is now up-market apartments surrounded by hundreds of new houses - and the chapel is the local pub! I found it a bit spooky really but the beer was OK...
|
My son stays on a new estate that was formerly a mental hospital for about 1,000 inmates. Much was knocked down but lots were converted into smart apartments + lots of new builds.
Where are all the people that would have formerly been treated there?
The only remaining building still a bit of a ruin is being gutted and extended, it was the morgue! Up for sale soon -I'd guess £500K plus as the smaller, but extended gatehouses were £400K+
|
>>
>> Where are all the people that would have formerly been treated there?
>>
We are safely locked up on internet forums.
|
|
We have the sirens tested every Monday at 10am for our local asylum/hospital. It sounds out in many of the local areas and forests. I'm glad I've not heard it for real as its Broadmoor.
|
I am often deliberately extremely offensive in the interests of satire.
Watching the faffing over the Olympic torch the other evening, I started to gripe to the assembled company about the endless succession of languid fatties who seem often to be jogging a few yards at walking pace with it. I reminded them that for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where this torch carp started, the bearers had to do their kilometre inside a standard, fairly brisk time thanks, I added nastily, to the nazis.
I went on to say that sometimes languid fatties weren't the half of it, and that I'd seen a couple of cripples in wheelchairs carrying it. At that point my sister in law, who is a professor and easy to wind up, remonstrated with me for my use of the term 'cripple'. I am still kicking myself that I didn't dream up the perfect reply in time: 'Come to think of it, I think it was a cretin or moron rather than an ordinary cripple.'
In real life I have nothing but compassion and respect for gung-ho disabled people, or even the ones who aren't gung-ho.
|
>> .......... remonstrated with me for my use of the term 'cripple'.
I still use words that I was brought up to say. I see no reason to think about every single word before I say it.
|
We use "limpies" or "Annabels" (Welsh Anable = disabled).
I class both SWMBO & I as limpies these days, but not yet Annabels!
|
Census records told it like it was! - R.P.
