Finding Jean and Molly
Jean Gambell was 85 years old when she saw two of her brothers, Alan and David after living for 60 years in an institution and being considered a “feeble-minded person.” An October 21st story in The Times notes that today, she may instead have instead been diagnosed with autism, Asperger Syndrome or dyslexia. What’s especially saddening about this story is that her brothers only found out about their long-lost sister by accident: It was only when David found a letter addressed to his mother (who had died 25 years ago) in his mail that the brothers were finally reunited with their sister. The letter contained a questionnaire from a “local care home” on which was written “Jean Gambell”; finding it ultimately led David to contact Warwick Mews and to see his sister, who remembered her brothers immediately and embraced them.
As The Times details, there was a family legend about why Jean Gambell ended up spending most of her life in an institution.
Family legend had it that Jean had been committed to Cranage Hall, a mental institution in Cheshire, in 1937 when she was only 16. She had been accused of stealing 2s 6d (12½p in today’s money) from a doctor’s surgery where she worked as a cleaner. The money was later recovered but by that point, Jean had been moved from institution to institution and had been lost in the system. Her large family (her father had 15 children with two women) lost touch over the years and Jean’s whereabouts were forgotten.
Records rather suggest that Jean’s family was not able to take care of her and that her father, James Gambell, “may have felt that he had no other choice” but to have her insitutionalized.
According to records, Jean was found in 1937 at the family home in Birkenhead, Merseyside, “neglected and subject to emotional deprivation” at the age of 16. The order prepared by the health service described Jean as a “feeble-minded person” and decreed that she be interred in a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite amount of time under the 1927 Mental Deficiency Act. The order was signed by her father, James.
“Dad felt so guilty for what he had done, signing away Jean’s life the way he did,” says Alan, his face cracking with emotion. “He wrote many letters to the health authority begging for her to be released, but they didn’t do any good.” James committed suicide in 1957.
Just two years later, in 1959, an act was brought in that introduced an appeals system where people like Jean could have their cases reviewed. It is unclear whether the family even knew that they could appeal on Jean’s behalf.
The alleged theft, which Alan and David had always believed to be the reason why their sister was committed, didn’t occur until 1944. Jean had been released “on licence” to live as a maid at the Mary-Ann Scott home in Wallasey, Merseyside when the false allegation of theft was made. Her licence was revoked and she was returned to Cranage Hall.
Jean died this September of a stroke after a second visit from her brothers.
Like Alan and David Gambell, Jeff Daly also knew nothing about a disabled sister for half a century and has related his search to find his sister, Molly, in a film called Where’s Molly. Daly was 6 years old when his then 3-year-old sister was sent to an institution; he only found out about her in 2004 after his parents had both died.
When I read about Jean and Molly, and about their removal from their families and their siblings’ efforts to find them, all I can think is how impossible it is for Jim and me to imagine life without Charlie. It always startles me to think that it was not too long ago that children like him—such as Daniel Miller—were taken from their homes, to live their life separate and, too often, forgotten. Life is often hectic in trying to arrange things to suit Charlie’s needs and to provide him with the services and supports that can best help him. And life is good because of Charlie, because it’s a three of us, a family; and because every night I tuck Charlie into his bed with his favorite things arrayed on the floor beside him, and I know he’s with us, at home.
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POSTED IN: Adulthood, Living Arrangements, Siblings
3 opinions for Finding Jean and Molly
Nas
Oct 22, 2007 at 6:36 am
Shocking and heart breaking how lives can be torn apart like this. How can anyone possible be lost in ‘the system’ for such a long time? Just defies logic !?&*&!?
Heather
Oct 22, 2007 at 9:55 am
I normally just read your blog but today’s just hit me. Our daughter was diagnosed last February with ASD and is our only girl. She is sandwhiched between two boys. I couldn’t imagine having sent her away. Our oldest is so protective of his sissy that he would would ask daily where she is and why she isn’t home. It breaks my heart to hear this story.
How sad for those brothers and for the father who couldn’t undo what was done… I have to say I am so glad I live in the times now and not in the early 40’s.
Thankyou for posting this.
Sarah
Oct 22, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Here is the deal about why young girls were put into institutions and then ‘lost’…….bonus question: why was she locked up for years and then found being used as a ‘maid’? Answer: Free labor. The English in particular have a history of maids and servants. After the Great Depression and WWI the economy changed and poorer people became more empowered. Getting a maid was a lot tougher after the 20’s. ‘Feeble minded’ women were often checked out into the custody of the middle class ‘for their own good’ to work as maids for simply room and board.
Let us not even explore prostitution and other abuse that occurs to these people.
I manage the toys and real estate of the rich and famous. My benefits and wages are impressive and include a 2000 sq foot loft apartment in the city, a 1 carat diamond ring, and 5% match on 401 K as well as cash bonuses. Times have changed and room and board does not cut it like it would have 100 years ago. If I had lived a few generations ago I would have probably stayed on the farm till I died like some of my elder Aspie relations did. My family has a strong culture of taking care of our own. I remember some Down Syn. cousins that were never institutionalized in the 50’s. They just stayed on the farm and died old. They had good humor, worked hard, and one drove the tractor just as well as anybody. I think one was even a carpenter and made good money.
We loved them.
~Sarah
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