Victoria Lunatic Asylum, British Columbia’s first asylum for the insane, opens

1872. British Columbia’s provincial government opened its first facility for mentally ill patients, the Victoria Lunatic Asylum. The creation of such asylums aided the segregation of the mentally ill from the general population.

The asylum was located on the Songhees First Nations reserve, “in the former Royal Hospital pesthouse” (Chunn and Menzies, 1998, p.312). The institution was under the care of Dr. Powell, the Medical Superintendent and Mrs. Flora Ross, the Matron. During its six years in operation, it housed a total of seventeen women and eighty-nine men who were deemed to be “mentally ill.” The institution closed in 1878.

-Erna Kurbegovic

  • Chunn, D. & Menzies, R. (1998). Out of Mind, Out of Law: The Regulation of “Criminally Insane” Women inside British Columbia’s Public Mental Hospitals, 1888-1973. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 10, 306-337.

  • Foulkes, R. (1961). British Columbia Mental Health Services: Historical Perspective to 1961. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 85, 649-655.

Victoria Lunatic Asylum, British Columbia’s first asylum for the insane, opens

1872. British Columbia’s provincial government opened its first facility for mentally ill patients, the Victoria Lunatic Asylum. The creation of such asylums aided the segregation of the mentally ill from the general population.

The asylum was located on the Songhees First Nations reserve, “in the former Royal Hospital pesthouse” (Chunn and Menzies, 1998, p.312). The institution was under the care of Dr. Powell, the Medical Superintendent and Mrs. Flora Ross, the Matron. During its six years in operation, it housed a total of seventeen women and eighty-nine men who were deemed to be “mentally ill.” The institution closed in 1878.

-Erna Kurbegovic

  • Chunn, D. & Menzies, R. (1998). Out of Mind, Out of Law: The Regulation of “Criminally Insane” Women inside British Columbia’s Public Mental Hospitals, 1888-1973. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 10, 306-337.

  • Foulkes, R. (1961). British Columbia Mental Health Services: Historical Perspective to 1961. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 85, 649-655.