Sir William Charles Ellis

Sir William Charles Ellis (1780-1839) was born in Alford Lincolnshireon the 10th March 1780. His early career was as an apothecary but he soon took an interest in the treatment of mental disorders. This he learnt at the Sculcoates Refuge in Hull; which was run on a similar model as the York Retreat.

In 1817 a William Ellis was appointed as superintendent to the newly built West Riding Pauper Asylum at Wakefield. A Methodist, he too had strong religious convictions and so with his wife as matron he employed the same principles of humane treatment and moral therapy as practised at Sculcoates Refuge. After 13 years their reputation had become such, that they were then invited to run the newly built first pauper asylum in Middlesex called the Hanwell Asylum. Accepting the posts, the asylum opened in May 1831. Here the Ellis's introduced their own flavour of 'humane treatment' and moral therapy combined with 'therapeutic employment'. The approach he used went down well with patients, it was always voluntary, it made them feel valued and appreciated, it enabled them to recover their self esteem. Also, by having something with real 'purpose' to do that helped with the care of others or help with the running of the asylum, not only occupy their time but also took the minds off their troubles and suicides became extremely rare. By preserving their everyday life skills in this way he made it easier for his patients to pick up their lives again when they were well enough to leave, which now came sooner because these methods speeded recovery. Ellis became famous in his own lifetime for his pioneering work and his adherence to this 'Great Principle of Therapeutic Employment' and was rewarded with a knighthood.

It may be helpful to point out here that those records that appear to show poorer recovery rates than achieved today, are total patient counts. As the new asylum system grew so the number of those admitted that were always deemed 'incurable' and were quite different from the 'lunatic insane' which is what these institutions for were originally built for. The greater part of these new classes of patients were the elderly, sent by the workhouses as being ill and very close to death. Also, before the introduction of antibiotics there were other incurables such as those with tertiary syphilis and gonorrhea that came in. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, greater numbers of people suffering from epilepsy were also getting admitted. All this had the effect of considerably slewing some of the modern accounts critical of the effectiveness of these early establishments, even though there survives a great mass of comprehensive and detailed records from this period. On top of this, when the NHS took on the running of the mental hospitals they stopped admitting those classes of patient that appear in the Victorian records as 'idiots,' 'imbeciles' and 'feeble-minded.' These people were now sent to care homes elsewhere.

Ellis resigned his post at Hanwell in 1838. This came about because the visiting Justices wished to expand the capacity of the asylum again. Also, for such an institution which was wholly funded for by a levy on the local rates, it was becoming of the utmost importants, in the opinion of the visiting justices,  that that best use be made of the assets and monies spent, and that there were records and statistics to demonstrate that this was indeed being archived. However, this required an organisational change in the way and in the detail that the asylum was managed and run.

William and his wife Mildred enjoyed a being involved with all aspects of patient care and oversight of staff in order to create a 'domestic' or homely environment (or as is being reinvented today as Nidotherapy).

As Ellis stated that same year: It is evident, that for the patients to have all the care they require, there should never be more than can , with comfort ,  be attended to :  from 100 to 120 , are as many as ought to be in any one house ; where they are beyond that the individual cases cease to excite the attention they ought ;  and if once that is the case , not one half the good can be expected to result.

These intended changes made it impossible for the two of them to continue to do what their heart felt conviction demanded.

He and Lady Ellis then set up their own private asylum for a few ladies and gentlemen of the upper social classes, quit near by, in the grounds of Southall Park; this being the former residence of Lord Montford.

Alas, Ellis was a very large man and plagued through out his life by ill health. This no doubt lead to his untimely death from dropsy just as short while later on the  24th October 1839.

Trivia
Benjamin Lambden (age 19), was indited of steeling one sheep on the 30th of November 1838. Valued at 25 shillings (₤1 - 25p) which, it was said belonged to William Ellis of Southall Park. He was found guilty and sentenced to be Transported for ten years.