History of The Cassel Hospital

The Cassel Hospital was founded in 1919 by Sir Ernest Cassel, and opened its doors in May 1921 as a private psychiatric hospital to treat civilians traumatised by the First World War.

The hospital celebrated its centenary in 2021. You can view the centenary timeline here.

Originally located at Swaylands, in Penshurst, Kent, the hospital moved to Stoke-on-Trent during the Second World War. In 1948, it relocated to its present site at No. 1 Ham Common, Richmond, South West London, and entered the NHS under the leadership of Dr Tom Main.

Dr Main was a psychoanalyst and pioneered the concept of a ‘therapeutic community’, which offered a different treatment approach to traditional psychiatric hospitals.

Instead of viewing patients as passively ill and staff as actively knowing what was best for them, patients took part in the treatment process.

A democratic structure was created, in which patients played an active role in the day-to-day running of the hospital and participated in their own and other patients’ treatment, in an atmosphere that encouraged open communication.

Staff worked alongside patients, supporting and sometimes challenging them in their day-to-day living, tasks and responsibilities.

Those foundations of a democratic therapeutic community  remain at the heart of the work  Cassel hospital does today.

The Cassel archive holds the administrative records of the Cassel Hospital. The records date from the Hospital’s foundation in 1921 until the early twenty-first century. Read more about the collection and Cassel centenary archive.

The Cassel Archive

The collection includes some fascinating patient records, including patient files, records of admissions, treatment index cards and correspondence with next of kin. The level of information recorded in these documents varies considerably not just from one record type to another, but also from file to file. Taken as a whole they offer a fascinating overview of how patients were assessed and their symptoms described.
The earliest patient records date from the Hospital’s foundation in 1921. The majority of these records are treatment index cards, providing a brief overview of the symptoms of the patient and success of treatment. There are also a small number of correspondence between doctors and families regarding the patient which, in many cases, provide more context to the diagnosis and treatment.

There are a small number of ledgers recording the fees paid by Cassel in-patients prior to the creation of the National Health Service. There are also piecemeal records recording patient’s earnings and pocket money.

The Archive also holds a small amount of materials created by the patients. This includes a Patient’s Constitution from 1953, Patient Committee minutes from 1956, and information for prospective patients

There are a number of ledgers between 1921 and the 1940s that record staff appointments and wages along with a number of files regarding staffing in general through the 1960s, and files about a restructure of the hospital which took place in the early 1980s.

Records of staff training initiatives and seminars which took place in the 1970s and 1980s are fairly common in the collection, and there is a set of minutes from 1952 regarding staff conferences.

HR files for staff have survived in some instances, however these are currently unstructured and as such would be very difficult to search with any speed. The files themselves usually record a start date, and in some instances a termination date. Most consist entirely of pension contributions and annual leave records. Others are more interesting and complete with details of changes in employment and wages regularly recorded.

There is a notable collection of personal papers of Dr Tom Main in his official role as Medical Director and late a key advocate for the Cassel (1946-1990). These files mainly consist of correspondence with colleagues, peers and aspiring doctors and psychotherapists. There are also a number of documents regarding Main’s appearances at conferences and professional events. Alongside these documents are typescripts of lectures, talks and papers delivered by Main throughout his career. (note: the typescripts are rarely dated).

Aside from the writings of Main, the former Matron Dorreen Weddell (1946-??) is well represented in the Archive, with a good number of her articles, lectures and papers surviving. Unlike Main, Weddell’s focus is on nursing at the Cassel, which helps to create a picture of daily life on the ward. Weddell’s papers are bolstered by the survival of articles by other senior members of Cassel staff and visiting professionals.

There are a good number of volumes that record the medicines being used at Cassel between 1937 and the late 1950s. In the most part these do not include patient names making them an easily accessible resource.

The Ross Unit, or Families Unit was a unique experiment in providing residential therapeutic care to mothers and their children. There are a small number of records about the Unit, almost all of which will be subject to DPA. Among the open materials are overviews of the work of the unit, information for prospective patients, financials and minutes of team meetings. Materials that are subject to DPA include referrals, admissions and ward reports.

There appears to be a near complete set of 24 hour Community Report Books dating from the 1950s to the end of the 1990s recording daily activity on the wards. These will be subject to DPA and will need careful research to draw out useful information, but the volumes are unparalleled in their comprehensive recording of life at the Cassel.

Management decisions are captured in the volumes of Trustee minutes, 1919-1922, ‘Statistics and Reports’ volumes, 1921-1948, and Management Committee minutes, 1948-1974.

The public face of the hospital is captured in the Annual Reports and Accounts, 1922-1958, and the Annual Medical Reports, 1922-1950.

With regards to the Annual Medical Reports, there are multiple copies of these pamphlets which are not needed by the Archives, but which could be useful for outreach activities.

Alongside the articles written by staff mentioned above, there are also a handful of press cuttings about Cassel and leaflets produced by the Hospital to advertise its services. These are piecemeal, and tend to date from the 1960s.

There are also a range of correspondence, minutes of meetings and reports concerning Cassel’s involvement in umbrella organisations and their work as a teaching hospital. This includes a selection of reports from the Cassel summer schools run 1949-1969.

There are a small number of plans for the buildings at Ham Common, although nothing comprehensive. No plans of Swaylands or Ash Hall survive. However, there are papers regarding war damage compensation with reference to Swaylands.

There is a single file of plans of the garden at Ham Common in 1949 showing proposed planting for the garden with accompanying correspondence.

An inventory of the rooms of Lawrence Hall Hotel was made in 1945, and thereafter an inventory of rooms was made again in 1952 recording furniture and fixtures in common rooms and patients bedrooms.

By far the most voluminous records about the premises are files of correspondence about routine up-keep and maintenance of the buildings.

Images of the building are lacking somewhat, although there are a few if the exterior which date from the early 1980s. The collection includes a few images of staff and patients inside the Cassel, again dating from the 1980s, or possibly 1970s.

There are a very small number of photographs of staff and patients which appear to be from the 1950s to 1980s. All will be subject to DPA.

There are over 120 reel-to-reel videos in the collection. None are digitised and only a few are labelled.

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