November 5, 2016
Patients Arthur Nichols and John Weston both write about the asylum food. Their experiences can be compared to both the official reports from the Asylum Visitors and Commissioners
October 25, 2016
The Bristol Lunatic Asylum’s notes on Arthur Nichols include several letters from him to various friends and family, providing us with an insight into him as well as the asylum
July 10, 2016
In his book Life in a lunatic asylum: an autobiographical sketch, John describes the Airing courts where the patient’s exercised, as he saw them in the 1860’s. These same Airing courts can still be seen today if you visit Glenside Hospital Museum
May 20, 2016
Poor mental health can strike at any time. In Victorian Britain it could be caused by a skin disease or as now old age.
May 20, 2016
During the 1890s the asylum began to take photographs of the patients and place them in the case notes. Most have survived and I have now an archive of over 700 of these photographs which have been digitally restored.
May 18, 2016
Colonel Robert Jones, CB, promoted the use of the Thomas splint for the initial treatment of femoral fractures and reduced mortality related to compound fractures of the femur from 87% to less than 8% in the period from 1916 to 1918.
May 10, 2016
Voluntary aid Detachments, VADs, or even Very Adorable Darlings as they were sometimes called, were generally young women with very little work experience. They were trained in First Aid and what was called Home Care, and were often from upper class families
May 10, 2016
Surviving service records clearly show the journey from the battle field to the hospital. Wounded soldiers were treated in a field hospital and then despatched by hospital train and boat to the Britain.
May 10, 2016
On the morning of Tuesday, September 7th, it began to be whispered that Royalty would be in Bristol that day, until at last it became pretty generally known throughout the city
May 10, 2016
William Blunt was born in Wilby Northampton on the 12th June 1895. He was the fourth of the six children of William and Eliza Blunt.
May 10, 2016
The Golden Age of the postcard was from 1902 until the end of the Penny Post in 1918. Before the war there were eleven deliveries each day.
May 10, 2016
At the start of the war those men enlisted as orderlies in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) had often been rejected by the army as physically unfit, prohibited from being a soldier by age, height, and even flat feet. As the war progressed the army became less fussy as the need for more men to fight was so great.
