The Cassel Hospital for Functional Nervous Disorders was opened in May

  • Dr Thomas Arthur Ross (1875-1941) was appointed the hospital’s first Medical Director.
  • The hospital could accommodate 60 (other sources say 54) patients who were members of the educated classes unable to afford treatment in a nursing home.
  • It was initially conceived that the hospital would focus on the treatment of shell-shocked soldiers. Following a visit to Seale Hayne hospital in Devon by Ernest Cassel and the pioneer psychiatrist Sir Maurice Craig, it was decided that the new Hospital would instead be open to all ‘educated people of moderate means, who were suffering from functional nervous disorders’. 
  •  Although the upkeep of the building and cost of treatment were borne by the institution, patients stayed between two and six months and were charged a contribution towards their own maintenance.
  • The house and accompanying grounds at Swaylands in Penshurst, Kent were purchased and converted into the hospital. Sir Ernest Cassel was joined by Sir Robert Hudson and Sir Courtaild Thomson on the Board of Trustees. Sir Maurice Craig, Dame Louis Aldrich-Blake, Sir Farquhar Buzzard, Lord Dawson of Penn, Sir Henry Head, Dr AF Hurst and Sir Frederick Treves served on the newly formed Medical Committee. Dr TA Ross was appointed as the first Medical Director and Physician. 
  • The Cassel was tailored to the specific needs of the individual with methods adopted from various schools of thought.

 

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