SOLDIERS DISCHARGED AS ‘LUNATICS’
I have written before about my search for the folk who passed through The Royal Victoria Military Hospitals at Netley Abbey, Hampshire and pleased to say that I am still receiving enquiries and stories via my website – www.netleyabbeymatters.co.uk. My search continues and I now have just over 11,000 names on the database, which the Museum of Military Medicine, recently moved from Aldershot to Cardiff, has agreed to take over to ensure it remains accessible to the general public without charge, once I have ‘shuffled off my mortal coil’.
Whilst trawling through the British Newspaper Archive, and other resources, looking for any mention of Netley Hospital Staff and Patients, I kept coming across references to the plight of discharged ‘lunatic’ soldiers and became intrigued and began to squirrel away the various newspaper cuttings. I thought that Family Tree readers would be interested to read about this, as may explain why sometimes ancestors are found in a workhouse or asylum without reason.
Examples of the references to soldier ‘lunatics’, as found by Brenda Findlay, are illustrated throughout the article.
These servicemen, having fought for Queen and Country, were invalided back to Netley Hospital, many suffering from sunstroke after years of serving in hot climates such as India
