NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2007 43
● One of the gazebos still stands at Haslar (above), built on a small
rise to allow patients to look out to sea. They proved popular with
recovering sailors (see bottom picture) Pictures: Graphics Department, Haslar
● The seaward face of Haslar Hospital; enlightened psychiatric pioneers recognised the
benefi ts of a calm environment and plenty of fresh air
Sense and
sensitivity…
● The 18th century facade of Haslar Hospital – patients originally arrived in boats across Haslar Creek
HASLAR Hospital was
the earliest years, although it is at Haslar continued to fl ourish; in
conceived on a grand scale
known that treatments included 1842 Deputy Inspector Anderson
but it seems likely some of
blood-letting, purgatives, dousing was appointed head of the Asylum
in icy water and the ‘gyration and he quickly recommended
its first ‘patients’ crept in chair’, which spun a patient into that patients be given uniforms in
without anyone noticing.
unconsciousness. order to restore their dignity, and
Work on the hospital, on
The fi rst of Haslar’s notable a seamstress was employed by the
the site of Haslar Farm in
alumni was James Lind, who in Admiralty to repair these clothes.
Gosport, began in 1746, and
1758 was appointed Physician in Dr Anderson commented on
a case when he was rowed out to
the first block was ready for
Charge.
Although the hospital dealt with Spithead by a ‘lunatic crew’ for a
use in 1753.
a wide range of ailments, both spot of fi shing.
By the time it was completed,
physical and mental, Lind was The harvest was good – and a
Haslar was almost certainly the
renowned for his fascination with patient who had been mute for
largest hospital in the world, and
the care of ‘lunatics’. seven or eight years was heard to
has held various other claims to
In the middle of the 18th
start counting his catch aloud.
fame, chiefly being the largest
century the hospital espoused a
The asylum’s gardens also
brick edifice in Europe and the
“mild system of treatment” for
thrived, and patients grew
British Empire.
lunatics – an asylum in the true
vegetables and fruit which helped
The first patients were formally
sense of the word, providing a
supplement the hospital’s needs.
accepted on October 23 1753
secure retreat from the world –
– but, according to Jan Beach
and it is worth noting that their
marina Continued in May edition
ARRC, there were already others
on the site.
diet was somewhat better than the
“There are records describing
standard hospital fare.
people occupying the builders’
As Haslar’s reputation spread,
huts – some down-and-outs with
so it attracted the attention of men
no homes,” said Jan, cognitive
like prison reformer John Howard,
and behavioural psychotherapist
who in 1777 visited the hospital
at Haslar.
and was evidently impressed by the
“In this day and age which
care of lunatic patients, taking away
umbrella would they come under?
with him a number of ideas on
Probably mental health.”
hygiene, sanitation and ventilation.
So Haslar was an early refuge
At the turn of the 19th Century
for the ‘lunatics’ – a specific term
Rear Admiral Henry Garrett
for those who had some element
avowed that “a seaman who has
of reason about them, however
lost his reason in the service of the
limited; those who had not even
Crown should receive care and
that faculty were regarded as
attention on a scale not less than a
‘idiotic’.
seaman who has lost a limb in the
The legal definition of a lunatic
same cause.”
also hinted as to the enlightened
By this time the ‘Airing
approach which was demonstrated
Grounds’ at Haslar were being
at institutions like Haslar – “a
extended, and mounds built so
lunatic, or non compos mentis, is
that patients of all types taking the
one who has had understanding,
air could watch the activity out on
but by disease, grief, or other
the Solent.
accident has lost the use of his
Special perks were still being
reason,” according to Blackstone’s
offered to the lunatic patients
Commentaries on the Laws of
– one being more comfortable
England 1765-1769.
bedding; an insane patient had
This sympathetic view built on
bedding stuffed with 21lb of hair
the wider welfare initiatives started
instead of the standard 14lb, and it
by Drake and Hawkins in the 16th
was washed at least once a year…
century, who succeeded in getting
With beds occupied by casualties
Royal approval for a scheme by
of the Napoleonic Wars – affl icted
which parishes were required to
by both physical and mental scars
provide weekly sums of money to
– the hospital was busy in the fi rst
look after disabled seamen – the
decade or so of the 19th Century,
so-called ‘Chatham Chest’.
but by 1828 it was noted that most
The 254 years since Haslar’s
of Haslar was given over to the care
opening have seen a number of
and treatment of ‘Naval lunatics’.
radical changes to the treatment
A dedicated psychiatric
of naval and military psychiatric department had been offi cially
patients, and as the psychiatric opened in 1818, at which point
unit prepares to move out of more than 100 patients were
Haslar – the last purely Service transferred to Gosport from
facility geared for Service needs Bethlam in London – the notorious
at the site – the history of the ‘Bedlam’ – and six years later
unit in its various guises illustrates a part of the ‘Airing Grounds’
attitudes and treatment of mental was set aside specifi cally for the
health issues over the centuries. psychiatric patients.
Few observations exist from The kind treatment of patients
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