Pembroke House and Ealing Lunatic Asylum

The records do not begin until 1830. Including medical certificates, case books and visitation books, they are closely related to legal requirements.

In 1818, the East India Company made arrangements to send any of its servants who became insane while in India back to Britain, and to lodge them with Dr George Rees of Pembroke House, Hackney. The Company paid Dr Rees £40 a year for each soldier, sailor or minor civil servant (second-class patients) and £100 a year for officers and senior civil servants (first-class patients). Although patients were expected to reimburse the Company from their pension or other income, in practice the Company subsidised many of the second-class patients. Pembroke House was subject to inspection by the Commissioners in Lunacy, who were replaced in 1828 by the Metropolitan Commissioners and finally in 1845 by the Board of Commissioners in Lunacy. The patients enjoyed a relaxed way of life, with diversions on offer including music, riding, gardening and reading. By the 1860s their number had increased to about 135. In 1870 Pembroke House was sold; the India Office then acquired the Elm Grove estate, Ealing, and set about converting the house there to receive patients. The Royal India Asylum opened in the same year, with Dr Thomas Christie as its Superintendent. Future admissions were restricted to military patients and responsibility for the asylum passed from the India Office's Public to its Military Department. The asylum closed in 1892.

Unrestricted