The Royal Albert Asylum, Lancaster : a training institution for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fortieth annual report.

  • Royal Albert Asylum (Lancaster, England)
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Royal Albert Asylum, Lancaster : a training institution for the feeble-minded belonging to Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland fortieth annual report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    another time a hall, at yet another time a home ; and this year they had to chronicle the fact that Mr. Herbert Storey, following the noble example of his father, was now erecting new workshops, which the Com¬ mittee, in recognition of his kindness, had distinguished by the name of ‘ The Herbert Storey Industrial Schools and Workshops.’ (Applause.) “ That Institution appealed to them on many grounds, and when they considered the large number of children in the Northern Counties who were under these terrible disabilities, it was of the utmost importance that they should increase the support. This was not an appeal to any one class, because the poor and rich alike had their sufferers. The latter might perhaps be left to make their own arrangements, but even they could not have the skill and care which existed in that Institution. As to those who were poor, they had only to look at the voting lists, and pause in the selection of those for whom they voted, to see in each case enough misery for a whole tale to be founded upon. There might be those who had lost both parents, there might be those who were mem¬ bers of a family of which more than one were already inmates of the Institution. There were some cases where the parents could not follow employment and get the necessities of life, because they had to tend to the feeble-minded child. He asked their careful attention in this matter, so that they might aid the most deserving cases. How terrible the burden of sorrow a feeble-minded child caused in a family ! They had heard what the Institution had done in the past, and he asked them to support it, not only with their lips by drinking to its prosperity, but also by resolving to help the Institution forward, and to do what they could—whether it were much or little—to help on the noble work. In doing so, they would feel they were helping those who through no fault of their own were cut off from many sources of enjoyment, and also from sources of advancement, and in that feeling they would help to alleviate sorrow and suffering. Finally, he trusted they would forgive the person who had been the humble and unwilling instrument of inflicting that long oration upon them on a bright summer afternoon.” (Applause.) These Quinquennial Festivals afford excellent oppor¬ tunities of noting the progress of the Institution, and have been held ever since the laying of the foundation stone of the Asylum in 1868, by the late Earl of Zetland, Grand Master of the Freemasons of England. On the 31st of May, an Election of Fifty Patients took Election of place at the Town Hail, Chester. From Lancashire there f’atients were 34 candidates for 20 vacancies; from Yorkshire, 25 Chester, candidates for 14 vacancies ; from Cheshire, 10 candidates for 6 vacancies ; from Westmorland, 3 candidates for i vacancy ; from Cumberland, 6 candidates for 3 vacancies; from Durham, 9 candidates for 5 vacancies; and from Northumberland, 2 candidates for i vacancy. Altogether there were 89 candi¬ dates for 50 vacancies. At the Public Meeting subsequently held in the Town Hall under the presidency of the Mayor (Mr. Robert Lamb), Sir John T. Hibbert (Chairman), and the following members of the Central Committee attended; The Ven, Archdeacon