• HOME
• THE LANGUAGE OF MADNESS
• THE ASYLUM
• • Asylum Design
  • Patient Buildings
• SOCIETY
• • Urban & Rural Life
  • Class & Gender
  • The Hysterical Female
  • The Evils of "Self-Abuse"
  • Family
  • Visitors
• LEGISLATION
• • Legislative Influence
  • Origins of Legislation and the Criminality of Insanity
  • Teenaged Years: Marked Custody Transition
  • Turn of the Century: Voluntary Admissions
  • Updated Act: The Mental Hospital Act
• SUPERINTENDANTS
• STAFF
• • Working at the LAI
  • Hiring Practices
  • Rules for Employees
  • Employee Roles in Moral Therapy
  • Doctors at LAI
  • Doctor Connections to UWO
  • Training School for Nurses
  • Attendants
  • General Staff
• PATIENT PERSPECTIVES
• • Introduction
  • Patient Art
  • Patient Letters
  • Their Voice
• MEDICAL TREATMENTS
• • Medical Treatment Introduction
  • Use of Restraints
  • Drug and Alcohol
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Female Surgeries
  • Neurosyphilis
  • Shock Therapy
  • Lobotomies
• MORAL THERAPY
• • Moral Therapy Introduction
  • Labour
  • Amusements
  • Diet
  • Religion
• THE WORLD WARS
• • Before the First World War
  • During the First World War
  • After the First World War
  • The First World War and the LAI
  • First World War Veterans at the LAI
  • The Second World War
• MEMORIES OF RMHCL
• • Introduction
  • Their Memories

Dr. William John Robinson 1908-1929

Dr. Robinson graduated from the Toronto School of Medicine in 1883, winning the University Gold Medal and the Star Gold Medal in his final year. He began his private practice in Arthur, eventually moving to Guelph, where he became the health officer for the city and member of the Provincial Board of Health. In 1908, he became the superintendent of the Ontario Hospital of London. Dr. Robinson lectured on mental diseases at the University of Western Ontario and was head of psychiatry in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Robinson was obliged to carry on the work of the hospital without any qualified assistance during the First World War.

Dr. Robinson was a member of the Academy of Medicine of Western Ontario and the Ontario and Canadian Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Society and the Canadian Psychiatric Society, and a Free Mason. Dr. Robinson passed away during his tenure as superintendent, September 1929, remembered fondly in their yearbook by the nurse's graduating class of 1930.

Kindness in every way transpired
From out his very being.
We loved him, for his way inspired
A clearer way of seeing.

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