by Mark Stevens
That first visit was seven years ago. Back then, I had only heard of Dadd and Minor, and had not met any of the other characters in this book. My curiosity was really so much fraud, as I was ignorant of the privilege afforded me. I was just another voyeur who was passing through, as so many have done before. What I have tried to do since is repay the place by focusing on its humanity. My perception of it, and my respect for it has only grown over time, as I have found out more about it. It seems inevitable to me that this process will continue. The more I read, the more I realise how little I know about Broadmoor and its inhabitants. I think that it will always be that way.
Sources
A Note on the Broadmoor archive at the Berkshire Record Office
Some of the sources listed here are still closed, as they contain records of patients who lived well on into the twentieth century. In these circumstances, the Hospital will allow Record Office staff to extract information on otherwise ‘open’ patient histories. There is a detailed access protocol that BRO has agreed with the Hospital, which can be seen at: http://www.berkshirerecordoffice.org.uk/albums/broadmoor/.
All references given in this section are from the Berkshire Record Office catalogue of Broadmoor archives.
Books about Broadmoor
The principal history of Broadmoor was published in 1953. It is by Ralph Partridge, and is entitled Broadmoor: A History of Criminal Lunacy and its Problems. It is not always accurate, but is very readable. There is a ‘sequel’, by D A Black, called Broadmoor Interacts, though it is a different read to Partridge.
Later in 2011, Harvey Gordon’s Broadmoor: An Inside Story will be published. This is set to become the new standard history of the Hospital.
Edward Oxford
Notes about Oxford at Broadmoor were taken from the relevant case book (D/H14/D2/1/1/1), and his case file (D/H14/D2/2/1/96) at the Berkshire Record Office. The correspondence about Oxford’s discharge can be found in D/H14/A1/2/4/1. Haydon’s letter to Nicolson is within a file of newspaper cuttings D/H14/A5/1/3.
You can read the transcript of Oxford’s trial on the Old Bailey website at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=def1-1877-18400706&div=t18400706-1877#highlight. Oxford also has a brief Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford.
Richard Dadd
Notes about Dadd at Broadmoor were taken from the relevant case books (D/H14/D2/1/1/1 and D2/1/3/1), and his case file (D/H14/D2/2/1/130) at the Berkshire Record Office. Entries for purchases made by Dadd can be found in the patients’ account book (D/H14/D3/3/1/1).
There are various books available about Dadd. The two which brought him back to attention are:
Richard Dadd, by Patricia Allderidge, Academy, 1974
Richard Dadd: the Rock and Castle of Seclusion, by David Greysmith, Macmillan, 1973.
Another book about Dadd, Richard Dadd: The Artist and the Asylum, will be published in summer 2011, written by Nick Tromans.
There are also various sources of information about Dadd online. If you want to jump straight to his wikipedia entry then it is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dadd. The collection of Dadd art held at Bethlem Royal Hospital Museum can be viewed at http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk/gallery/pages/LDB867-1.asp.
William Chester Minor
From Broadmoor, information about Minor comes from the relevant case books (D/H14/D2/1/1/3 and D2/1/3/1), and his case file (D/H14/D2/2/1/742) at the Berkshire Record Office. Entries for purchases made by Minor can be found in the patients’ account book (D/H14/D3/3/1/1).
The principal work on Minor in print is Simon Winchester’s The Surgeon of Crowthorne, (The Professor and The Madman in the US), a bestseller and well worth a read to anyone interested in Minor’s story. It is not an authoritative biography, but contains the results of far more research on Minor than the short piece I have written.
Online, Minor’s wikipedia entry is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Chester_Minor , and there’s a BBC article at http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/berkshire/article_1.shtml.
Christiana Edmunds
Edmunds’s Broadmoor notes can be found in D/H14/D2/2/2/204 and D/H14/D2/1/2/1.
Many newspapers carried updates of Christiana’s trial in excited detail, and a lot of this chapter has been taken both from The Times and regional newspapers on pay-per-view websites. There are, however, some accounts of her trial available free online via the New York Times. These are:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A01E1DD113EEE34BC4B53DFBF66838A669FDE
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980CE6DC113EEE34BC4053DFBF66838A669FDE
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B00E2D71739E43BBC4951DFBF66838A669FDE
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A06E3D9113EEE34BC4E52DFB4668389669FDE
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C00E0DB113EEE34BC4B53DFB4668389669FDE
The official proceedings of the Old Bailey provide little detail about the case.
There is a wikipedia entry for Edmunds, though it is fairly basic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiana_Edmunds
Broadmoor Babies
The Broadmoor case file references for each of the patients at the Berkshire Record Office are as follows:
D/H14/D2/2/2/113: Catherine Dawson
D/H14/D2/2/2/146: Mary Ann Meller
D/H14/D2/2/2/177: Margaret Crimmings
D/H14/D2/2/2/212: Margaret Davenport
D/H14/D2/2/2/280: Catherine Jones
And their case notes can be found in D/H14/D2/1/2/1.
Correspondence about some of the cases can be found in the Superintendent’s letter book D/H14/A2/1/4/1.
None of these patients are yet well known, so although other sources, such as trial reports, are available locally, the only one freely available online is that of Mary Ann Meller. Misspelt Miller, her trial transcript is at
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=def1-105-18671216&div=t18671216-105#highlight.
Escape from Broadmoor
There are lots of places to look for information about these escapes in the Broadmoor archive at the BRO. The following items all contain relevant information for the first half of the chapter, detailing escape attempts under Meyer’s leadership:
Council of Supervision minutes (D/H14/A1/2/1/1-2)
The Council’s Chairman’s letter books (D/H14/A1/2/4/1-2)
Letters from Whitehall (D/H14/A1/2/5/1)
Annual reports (D/H14/A2/1/1/1)
Meyer’s journal (D/H14/A2/1/3/1)
Superintendent’s letter book (D/H14/A2/1/4/1)
Staff defaulter’s books (D/H14/B1/3/1/1-3)
Case files do not survive for every patient in this first part of the story. The ones that do are:
D/H14/D2/2/1/40: Richard Elcombe
D/H14/D2/2/1/179: Peter Waldie
D/H14/D2/2/1/186: Timothy Grundy
D/H14/D2/2/1/232: Patrick Lyndon
D/H14/D2/2/1/260: Richard or Thomas Walker
D/H14/D2/2/1/294: Peter O’Donnell
D/H14/D2/2/1/388: Cuthbert Rodham Carr
D/H14/D2/2/1/600: George Turner
D/H14/D2/2/1/617: James Bennett
D/H14/D2/2/1/791: John Thompson (1871 admission only)
D/H14/D2/2/1/1058: Thomas Douglas (1881 admission only)
D/H14/D2/2/2/65: Mary McBride
D/H14/D2/2/2/148: Alice Kaye
Patient case notes can be found in D/H14/D2/1/1-4 and D/H14/D2/1/2/1.
It is a similar position for the second part of the story, that connected with Orange’s time in charge. Here, the relevant references are:
Council of Supervision minutes (D/H14/A1/2/1/1-2)
The Council’s Chairman’s letter books (D/H14/A1/2/4/1-3)
Letters from Whitehall (D/H14/A1/2/5/1)
Annual reports (D/H14/A2/1/1/1)
Meyer’s journal (D/H14/A2/1/3/1)
Superintendents’
letter book (D/H14/A2/1/4/1)
Staff defaulters’ books (D/H14/B1/3/1/1-3)
The case files that survive are:
D/H14/D2/2/1/67: Thomas Cathie Wheeler
D/H14/D2/1/1/268: William Watkinson
D/H14/D2/2/1/404: John Batts
D/H14/D2/2/1/614: William Bisgrove
D/H14/D2/2/1/638: Henry Leest
D/H14/D2/2/1/640: Patrick Burke
D/H14/D2/2/1/659: Isaac Finch
D/H14/D2/2/1/747: Thomas Hart
D/H14/D2/2/1/1363: William Heaps alias Walter Arthurs
And patient case notes can be found in the same references as for part one above.
About the author
Mark Stevens is a professional archivist, currently working at the Berkshire Record Office in Reading.
He has been looking after the Broadmoor Hospital archive since 2004, and regularly speaks and writes about the subject.
Visit Mark’s Smashwords page at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/markstevens.
Table of Contents
Preface
Broadmoor Hospital: By Way of Introduction
Edward Oxford: Shooting at Royalty
Richard Dadd: Artist of Repute
William Chester Minor: Man of Words and Letters
Christiana Edmunds: The Venus of Broadmoor
Broadmoor Babies
Escape from Broadmoor
Only Passing Through
Sources
About the Author
