3-074-489 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene of the Disastrous Fire at the Private Lunatic Asylum at Southall, Middlesex, 1883. Aftermath of the '...terrible disaster...Six lives were unhappily lost, those of Dr. Robert Boyd, his son William, two of the patients, Captain Williams and Mrs. Cullimore, Eliza O'Laughlin, the cook, and a servant, Elizabeth Howe...only a few charred bones were found amongst the ruins...There were about twenty persons within the building at the time of the fire, which broke out after midnight. The mansion was a conspicuous object in the village of Southall. It was built by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough...The late proprietor, Dr. Boyd, was a medical gentleman of high repute, above seventy years of age, who long practised...as a consulting physician in lunacy cases...He was greatly respected in the neighbourhood...The survivors who were hurt...received their wounds in jumping out of the windows...The patients...were led out quietly, Dr. Boyd exerting himself for this purpose regardless of his own danger, and then returning to save the other members of the household, in which attempt he perished with them by the sudden falling-in of the roof...Our Illustrations give a view of the ruins of the mansion, and one of its former appearance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.