• 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

Superintendents

Superintendent's Desk. Museum London Collection

These were the men for whom the title Superintendent was intended when the Ontario Hospital system was established by the provincial government. They represent a specific era of mental health care in Ontario, 1870-1970. This era ended when the chief medical officer became subordinate to the administrator according to the new directives. Thereafter, the Ontario Hospital system reorganized and reoriented their work in a business model, reflective of the period.

Dr. Henry Landor 1870-1877
Dr. Landor was the first superintendent and he established moral treatment at the LAI.

Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke 1877-1902
Dr. Bucke was the longest serving Medical Superintendent. During his tenure as Medical Superintendent, he discontinued the use of alcohol, supported the abolition of mechanical restraints, implemented an open-door policy, and explored experimental surgeries in his approach to patient treatment. He also believed in the therapeutic benefits of work, amusement, and religion on patient health and rehabilitation.

Dr. George A. McCallum 1902-1907
Dr. McCallum recognized the need for trained nurses. During his tenure he advocated for and established training for nurses at the LAI.

Dr. William J. Robinson 1908-1929
Dr. Robinson was an advocate of open-air treatment. He had a large number of balconies erected where patients could benefit from fresh air and sunlight.

Dr. Fulton S. Vrooman 1930-1934
During his short tenure as superintendent Dr. Vrooman had the lower and second floor of the Women's Department refurbished with terrazzo floors, new casement windows, lighting fixtures and a new heating system.

Dr. George H. Stevenson 1934-1952
Dr. Stevenson was committed to the integration of psychiatry with general medicine and the behavioural sciences, and to that end was integral to the establishment of the psychiatric unit in Victoria Hospital, London. It was one of the first psychiatric units in a hospital. He also developed a graduate course in psychiatric nursing, the first of its kind in Canada.