Portraits of the Unremembered
Denis William Reed – Artist within Glenside
The Burdens
Pioneers of mental healthcare
Reverend Harold Nelson Burden was an early pioneer of mental healthcare for children and adults. He founded Stoke Park Colony with his first wife Katherine in 1909.
Katherine died in 1919 and in 1920 Rosa Williams, the superintendent at Stoke Park, became Rev. Burden’s second wife. Following the Rev. Burden’s death in 1930, Rosa continued to run the Colony until her death in 1939. Rosa set up the Burden Research Trust in 1933 to support medical and psychiatric studies of the Colony’s patients.
The Trust built a dedicated epilepsy clinic with an operating theatre, wards, and laboratories, officially opening in 1939 as the Burden Neurological Institute (BNI), named after Rosa. The BNI took a lead role in the development of neurological and psychiatric expertise in Britain, carrying out the first trial of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) in 1939, followed by the first prefrontal leucotomy in 1940. Clinical work continued under the NHS when the associated Burden Neurological Hospital was formed in 1969. In 2000 the BNI moved to Southmead Hospital where it remains today.
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