Registration of deaths occurring in lunatic asylums (1915)

[jmec73]

Hi, I've just discovered that a brother of my great-grandmother was admitted to West Sussex County Asylum in Chichester in 1911 and died there in 1915, and I have the records from a well-known genealogy site for this. I've then looked up the death index record on this site and FreeBMD and I can only find a single death record for the right name, with an age that's only a couple of years out but in Wallingford, 90 miles away. The surname is quite unusual, so not likely to be too many I'd have thought.

So, my question is would deaths in asylums have been registered in the same way as normal deaths, or by nature of being in an asylum would they have got registered somewhere else, e.g. a central office (90 miles away??).

The specific details are: Stephen Triggs (born c. 1857/58), and died 1915. The asylum admission record has his estimated DOB as 1860, but has the correct birth place of East Lavant. This date would then also tally with the FreeBMD death age of 55.

Would value any thoughts, even if it's just a big coincidence! Many thanks for any assistance.

Best wishes,
Jon.

[jmec73]

PS. Also just noticed that the FreeBMD death range is correct to - i.e. Oct-Dec 1915, and the recorded death on the asylum record is 16 November 1915.

[rosie99]

The Asylum record has Asylum - W. Sussex / Berks bracketed together against his record

[jmec73]

Thanks so much Rosie, I'd completely overlooked that! From what I saw, Wallingford was in Berkshire at the time, although now in Oxfordshire, so a good bet this is the correct death record then!

Much appreciated )
Jon.

[CarolA3]

All births, marriages, and deaths in England/Wales must be registered in the registration district where they happened, regardless of home addresses.

One of my ancestors died in the Oxfordshire County Asylum in 1903.

Column 1 of his death certificate - When and where died - states the date and the 'Lunatic Asylum' at Littlemore.

Column 5 - Occupation - states his occupation before he became ill, then 'of' followed by his home address.  There wasn't a separate box to enter it in.

Carol

[jmec73]

Thanks for the reply Carol, very helpful and appreciated.

Best wishes,
Jon.

[CarolA3]

There's more

The Berkshire Asylum was at Cholsey, in the Wallingford registration district.  The county boundary, formerly marked by the River Thames, was moved in 1974.

See this list for details of what was where, and where the records are now:  https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/wallingford.html

By the way, it was quite usual for patients to be moved around between hospitals if they were in reasonable physical health.  I've noticed a lot of that when looking at some Littlemore records.

Carol

[jmec73]

Thanks Carol, that's really kind of you. I had no idea about the practices of asylums, and was a little shocked to find the admission. I guess these days some of the reasons for admittance would be considered conditions that are easily managed by medicines, but these were very different times!

Thanks again.
Jon.

[CarolA3]

Different indeed!  Some patients had epilepsy, which is well controlled with modern medication in most cases.  Others were slowly dying from various forms of tuberculosis.  Some young single women were sent there as 'moral defectives' because they'd become pregnant, and never saw their families again.

And others got better and went home to lead fulfilling lives, while a few enterprising souls managed to escape

Carol