Sir William Charles Hood (1824 – 4 January 1870) was a British medical doctor and psychiatrist of the Victorian era who pioneered the humane treatment of the mentally ill. As Superintendent at Bethlem Royal Hospital in London he reformed and civilised the hospital's regime.Dr Charles Hood, British Museum website
Early life Hood was born at Lambeth in London, the son of Ann née Brown and William Chamberlain Hood (1790–1879), a surgeon, later a medical doctor.Kössler, F. der Doktorpromotionen an der Universität Giessen 1801-1884. Berichte und Arbeiten, Issue 17. 1970. page 44. He attended school in Brighton in Sussex before being admitted to Trinity College Dublin in 1841 aged 17. He obtained his professional training in medicine at Guy's Hospital, qualifying in 1845 before taking his M.D. at the University of St Andrews in 1846.Sir William Charles Hood, Royal College of Physicians database He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (F.R.C.P. Edin.) in 1849, and a Member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons (M.R.C.S. Eng.) in 1845. He was appointed Physician and Superintendent at Finnington House, a private asylum in Devizes. In 1851 Hood was appointed as Physician and the first Medical Superintendent at the newly opened Second Middlesex County Asylum.
Bethlem Royal Hospital
From 1852 to 1862E. G. O'Donoghue, The Story of Bethlehem Hospital, 1914, p, 416 Hood was the resident Physician and Superintendent of Bethlem Royal Hospital, living there with his wife and family;, Peter Owen Publishers he "worked indefatigably for the improvement of the patients' conditions, and particularly for the segregation of the criminal insane".
At Bethlem, Hood "carried out many excellent and necessary reforms",OBITUARY. SIR WILLIAM CHARLES HOOD, M.D., KNIGHT., British Medical Journal, 15 January 1870, p. 72 including removing the bars from the windows, carpeting bedroom floors, replacing wooden benches and tables with armchairs and sofas, putting paintings on the walls and statues and busts in the wards,O'Donoghue, p. 354 abolishing forcibly restraining the patients and allowing some to go on supervised day visits to Kew GardensO'Donoghue, p. 359 and the Crystal Palace.
An article by Henry Morley in Charles Dickens's Household Words describes some of the changes made by Hood at Bethlem:
Later years
Hood was a Fellow of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; a Fellow of the Pathological Society; and a Member of the Hunterian Society.THE LONDON & PROVINCIAL MEDICAL DIRECTORY, INCLUSIVE OF THE MEDICAL DIRECTORY FOR SCOTLAND, AND THE MEDICAL DIRECTORY FOR IRELAND. AND General Medical Register (1865), John Churchill and Sons, London, pg 232 In 1862 Hood resigned from his position at Bethlem Royal Hospital on his appointment as a Lord Chancellor's Visitor of Chancery Lunatics, a position which involved the regular examination of wealthy Chancery patients throughout England and Wales.The Daily News, 13 July 1868, p. 5; and "The Dundee Courier", 18 July 1868, p. 3 He was elected treasurer of Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals in 1868, receiving his knighthood for services to medicine at Windsor CastleO'Donoghue, p. 416 in the same year.
Personal life In 1846 he married Jane née Willett (1822–1866)Smith, J. Donald. "Who Was Basil Hood? – Part I", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 84, Spring 2014, pp. 26–35 with whom he had nine children: Donald William Charles Hood; Annette Louisa Jane Hood (1848–1925); Willett Charles Hood (1850–1857); Gerald Charles Hood (1852–1891); Frances Edward Charles Hood (1854–1882); Godfrey Charles Hood (1857–1903); Colin Charles Hood (1857–1915); Florence Mary Hood Ricardo (1858–1905); Basil Willett Charles Hood (1864–1917), a playwright and author who, after the early death of his parents, was brought up by his older siblings.Smith, J. Donald. "Who Was Basil Hood? – Part II", Sir Arthur Sullivan Society Magazine, No. 85, Summer 2014, pp. 15–32
Sir William Charles Hood died of pleurisy in the Treasurer's House at Bridewell Hospital in 1870 aged 45. He was buried in the South Metropolitan Cemetery.Burial of Sir William Charles Hood, London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003
Author Suggestions For The Future Provision Of Criminal Lunatics, London : John Churchill and Sons, 1854. Criminal Lunatics. A letter to the Chairman of the Commissioners in Lunacy, London, 1860. Statistics of Insanity : being a Decennial Report of Bethlem Hospital, from 1846 to 1855 inclusive, Bethlem Royal Hospital (London, England), 1856 Statistics of Insanity; embracing a report of Bethlem Hospital, from 1846 to 1860 London : David Batten, 1862. First Medical Report of Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum Reports of Bethlehem Royal Hospital Contributor: Reports of Cases of Insanity in The Medical Times and Gazette
References
External links Mania, Madhouses and Moral-Management: What light does the case study of moralmanagement shed on the gender dimensions of asylum treatment in the Bethlem Lunatic Asylum under the Resident Physician Superintendent William Charles Hood (1852-62)?