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b.1870 – d.1917
Calculated from his age of 47 when he died in 1917, he was born about 1870. The GRO has no birth registered under this name – perhaps he was born abroad. There was no record of anyone with surname of LANDROS on freebmd records between 1868 and 1872.
I searched the 1911 census records for Long Grove Asylum – sometimes it is easier to start at the end in order to go forward. Patients were only recorded by initials and luckily there were only three with initials PL. Two were too young (24 and 31) and one was 41 – just the right age to be 47 when he died in 1917, so I have taken this as our man’s record.
He was single, age 47 and a ship’s fireman, born in Finland, North-Karelia (no wonder I could not find a UK birth!). We may discover from his hospital records if he had any relatives back in Finland.
In spite of intensive searching, I have found little about this person other than the sparse records of his admission and transfer between asylums which are on the UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912.
This man entered the asylum system at the comparatively young age of 28 and spent the rest of his life between four different institutions. I wonder if he had any living relatives who worried about, or grieved for, him from 1898 onwards.
He was first recorded in Banstead in 1898, being moved to Leicestershire in 1901, Fishbourne in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1906 and then sent, ‘not improved’ to Long Grove in 1907 where he stayed for 10 years, dying in 1917.
I was fortunate enough to have help from Helen Taylor at Wiltshire Record Office. She consulted Peter’s file (their ref: 17/190/70) and confirmed the Lunacy Patients’ Admission Registers had the correct dates for his admission and discharge. He was diagnosed with ‘depression’ and records say he ‘sat around all day, sometimes becoming violent if spoken to’ and threatened to commit suicide more than once. He had no idea how long he had been in Leicester Asylum. The record appears to have him of the Lutheran faith (the writing was difficult to read) but no note of his place of birth. According to the internet, Lutheranism is a protestant faith much practised in the Nordic Countries.
