Devon Mental Hospital, Exminster

[LizK]

Hi

I've found my great grandmother's sister's death in Devon Mental Hospital, Exminster of tuberculosis in 1919.  Would the fact she died in a mental hospital mean she definitely had some form of mental illness/depression or were mental hospitals used for other purposes like having too many TB patients to deal with in a general hospital?

I'm trying to get a handle on how things were dealt with and find out more about my great grandmother's family so any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks
Liz

[AngelaR]

I'm wondering how old the lady is question was? Many people with dementia ended/end up in such places but then died of something else. Just a thought....

[LizK]

Hi, thanks for replying. 

I think she was 38 when she died, so I don't think that could be the case. 

[AngelaR]

Hmmm.... very unlikely then 

I've never heard of mental hospitals being used as overflow places, but that doesn't mean they weren't. My understanding is that there's a 100 year closure on patient records. so no finding out that way. Do you have her death certificate or was the place of death from a burial record?

[LizK]

I have her death certificate which only states that she died at the Mental Hospital and that she died of TB.  I think I can assume that she was in the hospital for a mental health problem (in those days could be something relatively mild of course).

I need to try to find her in the 1911 census actually, she doesn't appear with her family in Staverton/Totnes so far...  I wonder if she was in Exminster for a while.   

[Dorothy Hill]

I have found, in family research, a relation who died in Devon Mental Hospital, Exminster in June 1921.  He was born in Devon, a mariner, married three times, and died aged 48 of "general paralysis of the insane".  We believe his illness started with syphilis.   

[AngelaR]

Hi Dorothy

I think that phrase was one of the usual euphemisms for tertiary syphillis - there were a few 

I would be inclined to think that Liz's relation had one of the more standard things like depression, or possibly even schizophrenia? if she ended up dying young of TB

[LizK]

I do find those euphemisms for syphillis rather interesting! 

Yes, I imagine my relative had a relatively common condition.  Its just a pity that her records are closed for 100 years according to the Devon Records I've seen.  She died unmarried and without children as far as I'm aware, so I keep on wondering who would have visited her or if anyone attended her funeral...

[AngelaR]

Do you live locally enough to be able to check newspapers? It's just possible the funeral was reported, although in the circumstances it sounds as if it might have been a fairly quiet one......

Is she recorded in the 1901 census as having any disability? I know we can't see that column in the 1911 yet....