Ron Henriques archive

Archival material created by Ron Henriques, as well as records from members of Ron's family relating to his ongoing care. Records include:

1. Ron Henriques’ records:

a. Appointment diaries, notebooks, record books

Notebooks contain shopping lists, reminders / plans, art ideas, inventions, money concerns / hopes.

Record books record phone calls and correspondence rec’d (date of call, person, length of call).

Appointment diaries

Diary 2007 “Chronicles”

Notebooks with instructions on using appliances / equipment

Correspondence and cards from friends and family

b. Creative / reflective writing

Notebooks with stories and creative writing ideas and notes and reflections, inc one story co-written with Ron’s mother who was a children's author.

c. Photographs

Photographs taken by Ron in care homes, and of friends and family and his local environment. Organised by Jenny thematically. Subjects include: patients, cats, smoking, beds, studio spaces, homes.

d. Scrapbooks / photo albums

Scrapbooks of photographs, annotated. Subjects similar to photographs listed above. Includes one photo album originally belonging to George Henriques with Ron's photos also pasted in; one photo album of pics in care home.

e. Inventions

Invention books – each invention is numbered and books organised sequentially

Invention books – glossaries and indexes

f. Publications

Inc "The Untamed Sea"; "Paintings by Ron Henriques"; "Enabling Recovery: the principles and practice of rehabilitation psychiatry" (contains dedication to Ron by Dr Glenn Roberts)

g. Art ideas, lists and inspiration

Art supply / planning books

Scrapbook with artworks / inspirational material pasted down

Collage boards

2. Ron’s father, George Henriques’ records including: papers relating to Ron's early life and education, inc consultations, Brookwood, Exevale; Ilse Helmman; Dr Holder Bob Gosling Tavistock; National Schizophrenia Association etc. Correspondence and papers relating to local and national Schizophrenia groups, including letters between George Henriques and John Pringle (founder of Rethink), Schizophrenia Association papers, collected articles and resources.

3. Ron’s sister, Jenny Henriques’ records including: personal letters from and relating to Ron, papers relating to exhibition possibilities and developing Ron's artistic practice, papers relating to Ron's treatment and medication and correspondence with Ron's care homes.

4.Ron’s cousin, Veronica Gosling’s records including: records relating to family advocacy to find Ron a painting space, visitors book for exhibition after Ron's death at Studio 36 Exeter in 2022, and further correspondence and photos.

1950s-2021

4 boxes

This collection is uncatalogued. The following is an interim description which may be altered when detailed cataloguing takes place in future. This description has been written collaboratively with Ron's sister, Jenny Henriques.

Timeline:

1949: Ron born.

1960s: Attended progressive boarding school, Frensham Heights.

1968-1970: Started seeing a psychoanalyst while living back at home.

1970: Admitted to Brookwood Hospital, Surrey in 1970 and diagnosed with schizophrenia.

1973: Family moved to Devon and Ron lived at home for a period receiving community mental health support.

Spring 1974: Ron’s father died.

1975/6: Ron admitted Exe Vale Psychiatric Hospital, Digby, Exeter, where he lived much of the time over some years.

1978: Ron moved to Exe Vale Hospital Exminster for some months without the family’s knowledge where he received ECT treatment.

1984/5: Moved to halfway house accommodation on the site at Digby Hospital

1986: Moved to Spurfield House, an NHS residential home in Exminster village outside Exeter, prior to the closure of the psychiatric institution.

Autumn 2003: Ron’s mother died.

c.2004 / 2005: Ron prescribed Clozapine, the first medication to make a notable difference to his schizophrenia.

2005/6: Moved to Caraston House in Exeter.

Spring 2018: Ron’s second admission to hospital with a chest infection. Caraston House say they are unable to care for Ron given his health needs.

Spring 2018: Ron is discharged from hospital to move into a care home, Lucerne House.

December 2021: Ron died of COPD.

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Ron Henriques (1949-2021) was an artist, writer, inventor, and psychiatric patient. After being diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1970, Ron spent much of his adult life in institutions - in hospital, a care home, and in supported housing and finally in a nursing home, in and around Exeter.

He was a kind, caring man, concerned about the wellbeing of others in the residential homes where he lived. Once able to move into supported housing where he could live more independently, Ron spoke about his hopes and belief that things would change for him, and that one day he would be better and able to live as he wanted. He believed that the world would become a better place for people, animals and the environment. Growing up he had an inventive sense of humour and was remembered for being very funny and skilled in playing on words, mimicking accents, and picking up the characteristics of politicians and celebrities.

Ron grew up with his two sisters, Sheila and Jenny, on a farm with their parents. They were encouraged to be creative and played imaginative and physical games together, as well as helping with farm activities and animal care. Ron was practical and inventive in using materials to make things. However, life on the farm was also socially isolated and all three children were shy. There were underlying mental health difficulties within the family, including depression and anxiety, and dependency on alcohol and prescribed medication. Ron’s father was Jewish, his mother was half Jewish and survived the war in occupied Holland. The legacy of the war affected the whole family deeply and Ron became preoccupied with Nazi persecution and his Jewish identity from a young age.

At the age of eleven, Ron’s parents found a place for him at a progressive boarding school, Frensham Heights, in Surrey. This was probably on the advice of Ilse Hellmann, a relative and psychoanalyst and child development specialist, with whom they had discussed their concerns. Ron recalled his experience at Frensham as a very unhappy time, and later in adulthood asked why he had been sent away from home.

From the first signs of Ron’s illness, Ron’s father George Henriques, became deeply involved in finding whatever support and advice was available, trying to ensure that Ron had a good standard of care and treatment that was appropriate to his needs, and attempting to learn from the limited information available about schizophrenia. Through this process he became particularly involved with what was to become the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (now Rethink) as a founder member, as well as other organisations such as the National Schizophrenia Association, and National Association for Mental Health (NAMH, later to become MIND).

Despite being highly intelligent, Ron left school with 2 ‘O’ levels and at 16 years old, returned to live at home where various attempts to extend his education or find work didn’t work out for him, and he steadily lost motivation and became very depressed. With advice from Dr Bob Gosling (Tavistock Clinic), husband of Ron’s cousin Veronica Gosling, Ron started seeing Dr Alex Holder, a psychoanalyst, in London, from January 1968 until the time of his first psychotic episodes in 1970.

Between 1970-1973, Ron experienced increasingly disturbing thoughts and two significant psychotic episodes whilst living at home. While the family doctor and a social worker were very supportive, Ron required hospital care and was admitted to Brookwood Hospital, Surrey for periods of time on two occasions. He was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1970. During these periods of psychosis, Ron became increasingly restless, disturbed, and distressed by voices and paranoid feelings, and as his behaviour became significantly worrying and unpredictable, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

At this time, Ron had intense vivid experiences with both ‘good’ and threatening and extremely frightening messages coming to him, often associated with Nazism. He also believed he had special powers, and for him some names and signs became invested with symbolic meaning. This period was very distressing for the family who struggled to understand what was happening and to know how to communicate with Ron or help him.

When the family moved to a small cottage in a rural part of Devon in 1973, Ron lived at home initially, receiving some community mental health support under the supervision of the consultant psychiatrist, and managed some short-term employment. However, the impact of his illness became increasingly disturbing and distressing for both him and the family, and community support proved too inadequate. Eventually things were so difficult that he was admitted to Exe Vale Psychiatric Hospital, Digby, Exeter, where he lived much of the time over some years. His father, George Henriques, died in Spring 1974.

In times of better health, Ron was able to have regular visits to the family or came back to live at home. During some of these periods, he attended Industrial Rehabilitation, and could hold down occasional jobs. However, when his condition worsened, Ron had to return to stay at Digby Hospital, with regular visits from the family on Sundays.

Often communication between the hospital and the family appeared to be poor, with liaison mostly initiated by the family. An example of the significant impact of this poor communication was that Ron was transferred to Exminster Hospital for some months in 1978, without prior consultation with the family and initially without informing them of the reasons for his move. This was at a time when his behaviour was particularly disturbed. Ron recalled having ECT treatment whilst there and finding his experiences very frightening.

1985 saw the planned closure of large psychiatric institutions, prior to this Ron was able to move into halfway house accommodation on the site at Digby Hospital, then moving to Spurfield House, an NHS residential home in Exminster village outside Exeter.

Over the course of his adult life, Ron was prescribed a cocktail of medications. All the anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medication prescribed to Ron had significant side effects, some requiring further medication to mitigate the impact of those adverse effects. His schizophrenia was resistant to the antipsychotics he received until a decision to trial Clozapine (2004-5). Clozapine was the first medication which had a noticeable positive difference in helping Ron in managing the symptoms of schizophrenia, reducing the impact of delusions, paranoia, and hearing voices. However, Clozapine required careful regular monitoring due to its significant medical and physiological side effects. A key side effect for Ron was a significant increase in appetite with intense food cravings and subsequent weight gain, exacerbating the range of medical and physical difficulties from which he suffered over time.

Clozapine ultimately enabled Ron to move from Spurfield House to supported housing at Caraston House in Exeter. Here he gained a much greater level of independence and autonomy; he was able to go out on his own, get a bus independently and go shopping, and develop his artistic practice further. However, Ron continued to yearn for a home with all his family.

There were still significant constraints typical of life in an institution and, significantly for Ron, this included insufficient space - to paint and to set up his art materials, and to keep his possessions in his one room. This was a recurrent theme in Ron’s experience of life in different institutions, with family members acting as Ron’s advocates about Ron’s needs while managers cited health and safety issues as their main concern.

Ron’s family, support staff and key mental health professionals encouraged him in his work as an artist. Malcolm Learmonth, then Art Therapist for Devon Partnership Trust, was a particularly significant figure in Ron’s life. While Malcolm felt that art therapy could be detrimental to Ron’s mental health, over many years he encouraged Ron in his art as a creative outlet. Malcolm, together with Karen Huckvale, also a local art therapist - founders of ‘Insider Art’ (‘Arts, Psychotherapy, Health, Community’ - providing creative therapy courses and producing books and publications), collaborated with Ron, Ron’s cousin and fellow artist Veronica Gosling, and working with community psychiatrist Dr Glenn Roberts, helped Ron to exhibit his work in Exeter, including at Devon Partnership Trust Arts and Therapies Conferences and The Phoenix Bar. Ron also held exhibitions at his cousin Veronica Gosling’s studios (Forest of Dean, and at Studio 36, once she had moved to Exeter). Malcolm and Karen photographed a selection of Ron’s pictures to publish a book of his artwork through ‘Insider Art” - entitled ‘The Untamed Sea’ - and to create prints to be available for sale at his exhibitions.

While Ron was living in supported housing at Caraston House, Malcolm Learmonth secured a garden shed for him to use as a studio on the site of Walkworth House, next door to Caraston House and at that point a centre for the NHS Partnership Trust therapy team. The access to the shed as a separate space to work was invaluable for Ron’s work and wellbeing. However, during a period of change at the supported housing, in which Warkworth House was sold to the owners of Caraston House, Ron was denied use of the shed.

A concerted and collaborative effort was made by Ron’s family and care providers to advocate for Ron’s need for a place to paint. This campaign was led by Ron’s cousin Veronica, Malcolm Learmonth, Ron’s sister, with support from Ron’s care coordinator and Glenn Roberts, the community psychiatrist. They tried to persuade Ron’s housing provider of the importance of a designated studio space for Ron’s mental wellbeing and stability. Eventually, Ron’s support worker found a studio collective, EVA studios, who utilise temporarily vacant buildings for studio space. This allowed Ron to have his own studio space in Exeter, working amongst fellow artists for several years.

Over this period, EVA studios moved three times to different buildings. Eventually Ron’s increasing difficulties with mobility, balance and physical confidence made it too difficult for him to travel independently and safely to his studio. Fortunately, room changes at Caraston Housing led to management offering a room at an affordable rate - unsuitable for use as a bedroom, but a good space for Ron to use as a studio, and adjacent to Ron’s bedroom in the house.

As Ron’s physical health declined and his needs became more complex, the management at Caraston began to raise concerns about whether he could continue to live in supported housing. Ron had become vulnerable to chest infections, which resulted in two hospital stays. During his second admission to hospital in Spring 2018, Caraston decided that he would not be able to return to supported housing as his needs were too great.

This was a difficult and significant transition for Ron, who had no desire to leave his home at Caraston. Appropriate accommodation and nursing care had to be found rapidly, so that Ron could move directly from hospital discharge to his new home. The family and Ron’s Care Co-ordinator decided that Lucerne House was best suited for Ron’s needs and worked with the team at Lucerne to ensure that space was available where Ron could paint as soon as he transferred from hospital. This meant that Ron was able to continue with a painting he had started at Caraston, as soon as he was well enough, on moving from hospital to Lucerne House.

On the grounds of health and safety, management at Caraston wouldn’t allow Ron at the house to participate in sorting and packing his belongings in his room and studio, so the family had to undertake the move on his behalf within the short space of time allocated. The family found a storage unit near the nursing home for possessions which couldn’t be housed at the nursing home.

The COVID pandemic had a significant impact on life in the nursing home. Opportunities for social interaction, even with the staff, was reduced due to pressures and health and safety measures, and Ron was unable to receive visits from family or friends. Even as restrictions were eased over the coming year, there were still rigorous systems in place and visiting opportunities were limited, separated across an open doorway with the visitor seated outside, and brief. The pandemic also affected routine medical services, and delayed the eye tests, further cataract treatment and new glasses that Ron required. Together with incapacitating chronic back and leg pain and problems with balance, increasingly shaky hand control, and breathlessness, this made it increasingly difficult for Ron to paint, write or manage daily activities. He spent increasing lengths of time lying on his bed.

After completing the painting he had started at Caraston, Ron gradually prepared a board for a new painting and very slowly drew out the images with a pencil, to construct his picture. When he eventually started to add paint to his picture, this was in stops and starts, and a point came when the painting remained unfinished on the easel.

Ron died in late 2021 of COPD following years of heavy smoking. Smoking had been a significant part of Ron’s life and something he really enjoyed and craved. In psychiatric institutions, heavy smoking was often very much a central part of the residents’ lives. Despite this, Ron did have concerns about his health, and tried to reduce his smoking on occasion and took herbal medicines and vitamins.

Ron often spoke of his desires for a long life, wanting to have the opportunity to reclaim the years he had lost in institutions and to his mental illness. He had many hopes and dreams about where and how he would live when he was well. He imagined a home - living with or near family and providing his family with a lovely big house. He dreamed of living independently, perhaps as a bohemian artist in Paris, sitting outside at cafe tables with fellow artists.

Ron believed he would go to heaven when he died.

Ron’s process of painting

Ron only began to paint seriously when provided with art opportunities through occupational therapy sessions at Digby Hospital. Ron referred to this in later writing as a means of escape from his hospital experiences.

The collection includes some early pictures from the time Ron still lived at home, during childhood and adolescence, however none of his work appears to date from the time he spent at Digby Hospital, before moving to Spurfield House. From then on, painting became a significant part of his life. Once he had his own bed/room - and with sufficient space, at Spurfield House, Ron was able to set up a painting area, though finding space to paint and store his large works remained a challenge.

Ron mainly used acrylic paints but also experimented with different mediums, textures, thickeners etc, and incorporated pastels, crayon, biro. He explored the use of Day-Glo colour and glitter paint, and sometimes added Dymo labels, sticking them on his paintings. Ron’s process of developing a painting, certainly in latter years, was to prime the board and carefully draw the images progressively before painting - maybe making changes whilst painting.

Ron was particularly interested in strong bright colours and liked to find new or unusual colours or receive these as gifts. He enjoyed visiting art shops, and later was able to buy paints online, with support from staff in using the internet. Ron kept records of his research into colour and texture as an important part of his process. Ron generally used a palette for his selected colours, then applied them to his painting without mixing them, although he might add in thickeners or gels to change the texture.

Ron also adapted resources and tried different techniques such as making an extended brush (by taping a paintbrush to a long cane) to try painting from a distance. Ron sometimes ‘renovated’ earlier works - looking intently at the original and reworking often with different mediums. As well as being another aspect of his approach to his work, this also appeared to help him get back into his work and plan new work.

Many of Ron’s pictures were given intriguing titles, sometimes renamed or given additional names. References in earlier titles and images often reflect Ron’s Jewish identity and his sense of persecution by the Nazis. Throughout Ron’s life, he continued to experience voices which he attributed to Nazis who, in his mind, controlled and threatened him. Themes in his artwork include images from life on the farm, landscapes - rural and urban, often featuring churches, crosses, windmills, waterways, seascapes, boats and ships, railways and road systems, people, animals, birds, trees, and skies filled with intensely coloured cloud formations. At times, his works were highly textured and amongst other images, included decorative flowers and trees full of fruit and birds. Ron depicted people in a range of different situations, alone, in groups or en masse, inside rooms or various buildings, or out in the landscape.

Inventions, writing, and photography

Ron kept written records of many hundreds of ideas for his inventions, ranging from medical and social inventions to agricultural equipment or gadgets or cures for social ills. He documented these inventions astutely in numbered volumes, completing patent forms and logging inventions on indexes and appendices. He kept his invention record books locked in a suitcase as he was concerned they might be stolen from him.

Ron’s interest in inventions seemed to rise from a desire to make things in life work more easily for himself and others. He was always interested in gadgets, often looking out for them when shopping or as presents for birthdays or Christmas. Ron often wore multiple lanyards and vape pens around his neck, and carried various pouches and bags for his tobacco and special items. He enjoyed finding things in secondhand charity shops often looking for the best set of shelves or containers or tables to store his paints and other possessions. Ron maintained a large collection of CDs and books, including art books and magazines.

Ron was a creative and inventive writer. Prior to developing schizophrenia - and when able to concentrate - he absorbed much from literature and reference books, and was able to express his ideas and thoughts with creative skill orally and in writing. He showed a keen interest in areas such as politics, science and astronomy, history and geography throughout his life. From the time he lived at Spurfield House and then for some years at Caraston he wrote in journals and notebooks - for some years also using a typewriter - using both forms he covered personal aspects such as his sense of isolation and fear, or political, philosophical or scientific theories about the world, life and humanity, as well as recording his inventive ideas. His writing included poetry and fragments of stories, and he frequently talked about two books he had written in late adolescence, ‘The Circus of Simon Hollander’ and ‘The Ratcatcher’s Almanac’. He was convinced that these manuscripts had been stolen from him, and perhaps published by someone else. Ron would ask friends, support staff and family to find out about these books and search the Internet, hunting for them to see if they could find them, but no one was able to trace the books or knew if they had even been written or completed.

He wrote many letters - particularly while living at Spurfield - to organisations specialising in art/art materials, to family members and friends even those he saw regularly, often with requests for purchases or advocacy, and also wrote as a means of self advocacy to the health professionals involved with his support, to the Court of Protection, and to legal services about his lost books, his inventions, and his case against Digby Hospital.

Ron was a keen photographer when living at Spurfield and for a time following his move to Caraston, and experimented with different cameras and lenses. He recorded life at Spurfield, residents and staff, visitors and outings, the interiors and gardens and the resident cat. He was organised in storing his photographs and enjoyed showing them to visitors, just as he did with his artwork.

Ron believed that lawyers were engaged in recovering the money due to him for his books and his inventions, and for cases against the hospital for destroying his health and life with medication and incarceration. He felt that he would eventually find fame and fortune through his art, inventions, and writing.

None expected.

This collection is currently uncatalogued and cannot be ordered online. Requests to view uncatalogued material are considered on a case by case basis. Please contact collections@wellcomecollection.org for more details.

Records and artworks were stored by Ron Henriques and moved with him to different institutions he lived in over the years. As a result, the records and artworks often show signs of damage from having been moved around.

A letter in the archive from Ron’s cousin Veronica discusses how the material had been stored: ‘when I first met him he was utterly careless of the paintings; they lay about all over the floor, he say on them, trod on them, and bundled them about a bit like dirty washing, and he mended tears in the paper with Sellotape. He now uses good paper, or card’.

In Ron’s later years, the archive and artworks were moved to a storage centre. After his death at the end of 2021, the artworks were moved to Veronica’s studio in Exeter for an exhibition. The archival records were all cleared out of the storage unit prior to our survey visit and are now also stored at Studio 36.