FASHIONABLE MENTAL HOME

Evening Star, Issue 18050, 18 August 1922, Page 6

FASHIONABLE MENTAL HOME

CLEVER WOMAN AND A “REST CURE.” VOLUNTARY BOARDER CLAIMS DAMAGES. A remarkable case, in which a woman with a distinguished scholastic career at Oxford and Cambridge alleges that she was wrongfully detained in what is the most fashionable and most expensive mental institution in thp country, was before Mr Justice Darling and a special jury in the King’s Bench Division when the last mail left. The woman, is Miss Lilian Jane Gaul, of Lcxham Gardens, Kensington, the daughter of a musician of considerable eminence ia his day. She is claiming damages for false imprisonment and breach of contract against fourteen members of the Management Committee of St. Andrew’s Hospital for Mental Disease and also against the superintendent of that institution, a Mr Daniel F- Rambaut. Her allegations are denied. Among the fourteen members of the committee are Earl Spencer and Lord Vaux of Harrowden. Miss Gaul is conducting her own case, and against her are arrayed Mr Holman Gregory, K.C., Sir Ryland Adkins, K.C., and Mr B. Campion. —“A Rest Cure.” Miss Gaul, in opening her case, said she would also claim a declaration that the document by the virtue of which she was confined during the last period of her detention was null and void. She declared that on April 26 the committee agreed to admit her to the hospital as iPeaue person in need of a rest cure, and it was understood that she. was free to leave the institution whenever she pleased. Instead she was treated as a person of unsound mind and deprived of her liberty. From April 26, 1917, to May 4, 1917, she was subjected to conditions of gross indignity and misery, to noise, obscenity, and terror, inducing in her insomnia, perpetual agitation, and violent action of the heart and other physical illnesses. She frequently protested against her treatment, and demanded her liberty, which was refused ; she was terrorised by an official insinuating that she was suffering from loss of seu-control and insanity. —A Lunacv Order.—

On May 8, 1917, a reception order under the Lunacy Act was made for her detention. That order j she contended, was illegal. Although the petition for the order was signed by her brother, Mr Claud Alfred Gaul, its contents were considerably altered niter he had signed it. “ I was locked in the infirmary ward and ordered bv a young servant to undress and take a bath, 1 ’ declared Miss Gaul. “A head attendant of the servant class examined me in the manner prescribed for lunatics.”

—lmbecile Biano Strumming.-

“ I was not permitted to have hairpins or a table knife, and my eyeglasses were •taken from me at night. Once when I rose from my bod to close a door to exclude the loud and imbecile piano-strumming 1 was insolently ordered to get back to bed.”

Miss Gaul next declared that < ! ho had obtained what the head of her college described as a brilliant first class in Oxford Greats and that site had accomplished the record of obtainng two second classes in one year in two Cambridge Tripos. “Tnia is tho first action that tary boarder has; ever brought in the courts, and I allege that in my ease large sections of tho Lunacy Act have been violated.” —"A Beautiful Place.” — In April, 1917, _ she proceeded, her family were in a dclemma concerning an action by her, a.r.d they desired that she should leave home for a tune. It was suggested that she should go to that beautiful place 1 ' at Northampton, and "beautiful place it was,” she added. She ultimately waived her feelings in the matter, and, afl she the doctors who advised her, she entered the institution for a “rest cure." She had been working too otrenuousiy on war work, and at tho time she thought that at the most her stay would not exceed tltree wecJts. Mr Holman Gregory, K.G. (for tho defence) said Miss Gaul agreed' to be treated in tho way persons oi a bad Mate mentally wero treated. Voluntary boarders hud to undergo treatment. Miss Gaul: I went into the liospital as a person of sound mind, and the rules and regulations had nothing to <io with my case. Mr Justice Darling; On May 8 an order was made that you wero insane; do jou

complain of your treatment after that?—3 do not complain, except of my imprisonment among lunatics. Before they were very kind to me. Mr Justice Darling pointed) out to the jury that the defence set up that Mr Rambaut, the .superintendent, l4 had been told by Miss Gaul’s brother, brother-in-law, and her medical attendant that she had attempted to commit suicide by taking la.udhnum; that she was suffering from nervous strain and insomnia; arid that after her entry she was under constant care of the medical Staff. Miss Gaul: Suicide is a crime which requires a lot of discussion with regard to its being an indictable offence. Mr Justice Darling: It is not a question of an indictable offence. If the doctor was told that you had attempted suicide, ami’ if the proper treatment was to keep you in bed and to watch you constantly, then the only question is whether that was falsa imprisonment or proper treatment. THE LAW OF HARLEY STREET. Miss Gaul: I have been suffering from the law of Harley street for five years, and now I want the justice of tire King’s Bench for once. (Laughter.) Mr Justice Darling: Sometimes the law of Harley street and the King’s Bench coincide. Harley street is not outside the law. Harley street is not Alsatia. (Laughter.)