Eileen Younghusband Memorial Lecture. 'The Faint Echo of Voices from Below: Hearing Patient Practice through the writings of patients in Glamorgan Lunatic Asylum, 1864-1914'

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Eileen Younghusband (1921-2016) was a filter officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during World War II, working on the assessment of radar reports and joining the team tasked with detecting the location of Hitler’s V2 rockets. In later life, she completed a degree with the Open University (aged 87), and shortly afterwards published her first book, Not an Ordinary Life. Further books were to follow, including for children Eileen’s War. Eileen was a committed supporter of the Centre for Lifelong Learning (now Continuing and Professional Education), and in 2013 she was awarded a British Empire Medal for campaigning against cuts in adult education in Cardiff.

Like Eileen, Dan Jewson is a mature student closely involved with Continuing and Professional Education. His return to study came through the Exploring the Past Pathway and now, having graduated from Cardiff, he is an AHRC doctoral candidate based at both The University of Exeter’s Centre for Medical History, and the History department of the Cardiff University School of History, Archaeology and Religion. Previously supported by the Wellcome Trust, his primary research interests centre on the history of psychiatry, and like Eileen he has a keen interest in the experience of women in the past

We’re delighted to welcome Dan to deliver this lecture, dedicated to Eileen Younghusband’s memory, which will consider patient life in the Glamorgan Lunatic Asylum 1864 – 1914. Presenting Dan’s research that explores the inner world of the asylum, and the ‘interior word’ of the patient, it offers a rare opportunity to ‘hear’ patients speak for themselves.  With a particular focus on the experiences of women, the lecture places patient communications centre stage to reveal the complex interactions between the perspectives, practices and responses of the confined through the lens of patient writings.

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