Change Minds Online: William Carnie Jnr by a Change Minds Participant
William Carnie Jnr taken by Barker and Parker in 1887-1888. This photograph was developed from glass plate negatives held under our reference WUC-04
William Carnie Jnr, an engineer who lived at 45 Hardwick Street, Deptford was born in 1869 and admitted to Bethlem on August 19th 1887 at the age of 18.
His earliest symptoms had occurred on the 13th At three in the morning he called his father up and said he had a dream. Men were jealous of him and would lynch him because he carried tales to his father which he did not do.
His 1st Medical Certificate documents an incoherent and rambling conversation in which he stated that he heard voices calling upon him to abstain from food as it was poisoned and to commit acts against his will. Also that he believed he was being persecuted by unknown people.
His 2nd Medical Certificate documents his belief that the medicine which had been prescribed for him was poisoned.
His sister reported that it had taken three men to hold him down and that during that two-hour period he had informed them that he ‘was dead.’
His ‘Supposed Cause of Insanity’ was documented as ‘Over-anxiety in business’
William Carnie Jnr was discharged ‘Well’ from Bethlem on June 20th 1888
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