Rob Derry
master brummie
A very sad discovery in my family history was the treatment of Betsy Jones, sister of my great grandad Frank Jones. She was deemed to be a "congenital idiot" and placed in the Winson Green mental hospital in 1878, then the new Rubery Hill Asylum in 1882. On becoming an inmate her records state that she was "said to be deaf and dumb, destroys clothing, restless, violent and noisy, thin but seems healthy and has an intelligent expression but can't articulate". She was put in the asylum aged 9 and died at Rubery in 1910. At that time the education committee were responsible for identifying such children notifying the "mental deficiencies committee" of those who appeared incapable of benefiting from special schools or classes and the authorities would then step in. Thank God we are not Victorians! Forgotten to history but not by us.