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"Four years after the Whitechapel murders, in 1892, Joseph Fleming was admitted to the Stone Asylum, the City of London asylum near Dartford, Kent. Some two and a half years later, in February 1895, he was transferred to Claybury Hospital at Woodford Bridge in Essex. He was still at Claybury when he died on 28 August 1920."
I am about to embark on trying to get access to any surviving asylum records for Evans/Fleming
For the period when he was at the Stone Asylum, Dartford, patient records are held by the Corporation of London Records Office.
The records for Claybury Asylum are held by the London Metropolitan Archive, I was initally told, although another source says that the patient records for 1895 to 1896 are held at the Wellcome Library. However, I have contacted the Wellcome today and they hold only a small group of case notes of a Dr Faulkner for those two years, and advise that the general patient records are not with them. It seems that the LMA do not hold the records either. The most likely location is at the Redbridge Records Office. I have spoken to a researcher there today and she advised that hospital and asylum records are subject to 100 year closure and, also, it may only be possible for a person with a documented family link to consult the patient records of an individual, so there may be complications. I am currently in contact with the Records Office at Ilford to see what the position is. Under the hundred year rule it MAY be possible to consult the records of a patient up to 1909 (100 years ago) or another interpretation may be that any patient whose stay at an asylum comes, even partly, within the 100 year rule will have their records closed to access.
I am waiting for an interpretation of this to see if any access is possible.
The only reason I have described this at some length is that I do not want to
1) Duplicate the efforts of other researchers or
2) "steal the thunder" of any researcher who has already accessed this material and is intending to publish it
In the latter case if you contact me either by private message or e-mail then I will hold back as someone is already pursuing this issue.
I am about to embark on trying to get access to any surviving asylum records for Evans/Fleming
For the period when he was at the Stone Asylum, Dartford, patient records are held by the Corporation of London Records Office.
The records for Claybury Asylum are held by the London Metropolitan Archive, I was initally told, although another source says that the patient records for 1895 to 1896 are held at the Wellcome Library. However, I have contacted the Wellcome today and they hold only a small group of case notes of a Dr Faulkner for those two years, and advise that the general patient records are not with them. It seems that the LMA do not hold the records either. The most likely location is at the Redbridge Records Office. I have spoken to a researcher there today and she advised that hospital and asylum records are subject to 100 year closure and, also, it may only be possible for a person with a documented family link to consult the patient records of an individual, so there may be complications. I am currently in contact with the Records Office at Ilford to see what the position is. Under the hundred year rule it MAY be possible to consult the records of a patient up to 1909 (100 years ago) or another interpretation may be that any patient whose stay at an asylum comes, even partly, within the 100 year rule will have their records closed to access.
I am waiting for an interpretation of this to see if any access is possible.
The only reason I have described this at some length is that I do not want to
1) Duplicate the efforts of other researchers or
2) "steal the thunder" of any researcher who has already accessed this material and is intending to publish it
In the latter case if you contact me either by private message or e-mail then I will hold back as someone is already pursuing this issue.
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