An 8 year old boy in the asylum

We have been working with a group from Ageing Well - supported by Age UK and a history club from Archway School to look at Horton Road Asylum records from Gloucester Archives.
Whilst going through the 1917 admission records the Ageing Well group found an 8 year old boy labelled as a congenital idiot. He was the only child we found amongst the records which contained all manner of other patients from 80 year old women who had been in the asylum for 30 years to soldiers returning with "shell shock" - an actual definition on one admission - to women suffering because of "love affairs" and men who had been in prison.
The 8 year old was listed as being a "congenital idiot" which made the Ageing Well group think he may have had Downs Syndrome. The Archway pupils noticed his symptoms "shouting" and being "a danger to others" because he scratched them and wondered if perhaps he had tourettes.
It's difficult to know from a basic record what the modern day diagnosis would be but it is interesting how aware both groups from different generations are of mental health problems.
Having checked further details through Ancestry online sadly the boy died at the age of 12.

Defining Madness

Whilst looking through the records for the Gloucester Asylum in particular the case book there are times when you wonder what is classed as madness in the time of the First World War?
There are two cases which turned up which showed the sublime and the ridiculous.
The sublime - and it raises the question as to what treatment did he receive - is the soldier who's initial entry said the following:
"Suffers from incoherent ramblings and says that all he wants is to be shown a little kindness" Personally I think that is all any of us want in this world.
The ridiculous is very much stranger and again the initial entry for the patient says:
"Sings a lot and says this is because he was raised on bird seed. Also claims to be able to train animals. Has had most success he claims recently with training winkles" Strangely these aren't listed as "incoherent ramblings".
The case book lists almost 40 soldiers who were patients in the Horton Road asylum in 1917 - all suffering from different mental health problems from what "hearing voices" to what would now be classed as depression.