1896
In an 1896 report by the Commissioners in Lunacy and the Board of Control, it was stated that ‘the rooms are warm and comfortable’. Other reports noted the extensive use of the grounds by patients.
1892
The Tuke brothers took over Chiswick House as an asylum, and it remained open until 1928. When Charles Molesworth Tuke died in 1925, his obituary said ‘he made for himself a name that will be lasting and that stands for all that is best and most human in the treatment of insanity’.
1924
We have also been researching the record of Miss Violet Eleanor Mills who was admitted at Chiswick in 1924, suffering from insomnia and possibly from the bad effects of dentistry under gas. She left later the same year, and lived to the age of 72.
1898
Francis Peter Gervais was admitted to Chiswick House Asylum. We have been able to trace some details of his life through records – we know he lived through the First World War and died in 1918. An Irish landowner, he was interested in proving that William Shakespeare really was the author of his own plays, and he wrote a book about this.