montrose royal lunatic asylum

[smcb]

Hi

I am wondering if anyone knows where I would get information regarding a patient being at Montrose Royal Lunatic asylum in 1871.  I have been able to find the 1871 census for William Mcbay, inmate at the asylum on Ancestry, however I have tried to check and see if anything comes up in google.  I know that it had a hospital added but the word "inmate" gives me reason to wonder what William's handicap may be.  Could he have mental health issues rather than him being a patient in the hospital say for being unwell.  It is the word of "inmate" that throws me. However  in the 1881 census he is back staying with his family.

Would I have to write to Angus Council to find out??  any suggestions would be most welcome!

regards
Suzie

[caljam371]

Some interesting info -

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/medical/exhibitions/sunnydays.htm

[Forfarian]

Would I have to write to Angus Council to find out??  any suggestions would be most welcome!

I'd start with NHS Tayside http://www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/ and ask (a) whether or not they have the patient records from Montrose (b) if so where are they and how can they be accessed or (c) if not, do they know where they are?

You could also ask Angus Archives www.angus.gov.uk/history/archives

[smcb]

Thank you Forfarian for you suggestion, I shall certainly get in touch with the authority and see what details they can give me.

regards
suzie

[weemanswife]

Hi

This is an address I tried Archive Services, Tower Building, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN  they couldn't give me the information I wanted because of the data protection laws although he entered  Sunnyside Asylum in 1881.

Weemanswife

[Forfarian]

This is an address I tried Archive Services, Tower Building, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN  they couldn't give me the information I wanted because of the data protection laws although he entered Sunnyside Asylum in 1881.

Data protection laws don't apply to people who are long dead. It is quite normal for hospital records, especially those relating to patients in mental hospitals, to be closed for 100 years like the census, but if he died before 1911 I am pretty sure they can't use data protection as an excuse for withholding access.

If you are really keen to see his records, I suggest that you need to bone up a bit on the laws relating to data protection and freedom of information as they relate to people who died long ago, and get back to them with a formal request under the FoI act.

[weemanswife]

Hi

The person whose records I was after entered Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum (Sunnyside) on the 21 Oct. 1881 aged 25 and died there on 4th May 1928.

Weemanswife

[Forfarian]

Ah, well, only 17 years to wait then.

[harrow]

Is Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum the same as Sunnyside Asylum? I had a relative die there in 1871, contacted them as there is a museum of psychiatry there and received a photocopy of the case notes. A friend who is a psychiatrist read the notes and suggested that he probably died of meningitis and was not mad at all! Hope this helps.