| Administrative History | The scarcity of accommodation and the increasing incidence of lunacy in the North East of Scotland let to an inquiry by the General Board of Commissioners on 1st June 1898 and a meeting between them, Aberdeen Parish Council, the Directors of Aberdeen Royal Asylum and the Aberdeen District Lunacy Board was then held. As a result of this, Aberdeen City was erected as a separate Lunacy District with powers to build an asylum to house pauper lunatics belonging to the parish of Aberdeen City.
The foundation stone of Kingseat was laid on 14th September 1901 and the institution was built on the then revolutionary 'villa' system. The asylum was opened for the reception of patients on 16th May 1904 with 261 patients being transferred immediately from Aberdeen Royal Asylum and the fatuous wards of the East and West Poorhouses in Aberdeen.
The first Medical Superintendent was Dr. Charles Angus who was succeeded following his death on 21st July 1906 by Dr. Hugh de Maine Alexander, who served the asylum until his own death in 1930.
From the 8th February 1927 under an agreement reached with Aberdeen Parish Council, voluntary patients were admitted to the hospital. In the same year, as part of the reorganisation of hospital services in Aberdeen, accommodation was made available in Kingseat for people suffering from encephalitis lethargica and epilepsy occurring in Aberdeen and the rest of the North East. Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (which came into effect on 16th May 1930), the entire hospital was transferred to the administration of Aberdeen Town Council.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Kingseat was requisitioned by the Admiralty in September 1939 and from then on, until 28th February 1946 it functioned as a Naval Auxiliary Hospital. During this time the majority of the patients were transferred to Aberdeen Royal Mental Hospital and to the District Asylum at Inverness, though smaller numbers went to Ladysbridge at Banff, Murray Royal Asylum at Perth, the Morayshire District Asylum (Bilbohall) at Elgin, Maud Home and Woodcot Home at Stonehaven.
When the hospital was returned the task of re-conditioning and re-equipping was taken in hand immediately, but the authorities had considerable difficulty in recruiting both nursing and domestic staff. However, the first batch of patients eventually returned to Kingseat from Inverness District Asylum on 24th October 1946.
The National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 reduced the duties of the Local Authorities in connection with mental health and the Aberdeen Corporation handed Kingseat over to the North-Eastern Regional Hospital Board in 1948. Kingseat then became administered by the Aberdeen Mental Hospitals Board of Management, which in 1967 became the Royal Cornhill and Associated Hospitals Board of Management. In 1962 "Halfway House", the Kingseat Rehabilitation Centre was opened at 375 Great Western Road in Aberdeen for day and out-patient care.
From 1974 Kingseat was administered by the South District of Grampian Health Board, even though geographically it lay in the North District. Kingseat closed in 1994.
*Note - there is a list of patients in Kingseat Hospital who were in receipt of poor relief from Aberdeen City Parish as at 15th May 1922 held at Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives under reference C/16/3/1* |
| Description | Case records, 1904-1944; Registers of admission and discharges, 1904-1964; Register of deaths, 1923-1963; Daily registers, 1904-1961; Lunacy forms, 1904-1939, 1947-1960; Wages book, 1939-1950; Farm ledger, 1951-1957; Annual reports, 1904-1916, 1925, 1927, 1929; Regulations, 1904, 1908; News cuttings, 1904-1906, 1956-1974; Staff registers, 1904-1949; Photographs of buildings and staff, aerial photographs, etc.,1905 - 1979. |