QUEEN ADELAIDE FUND

<span class="wrapper"><p>The administrative records of the Fund have remained with the Middlesex County Council records as the Clerk to the Council was also Clerk to the Trustees of the Queen Adelaide Fund. The records of patients assisted by the Fund were kept at Hanwell Asylum. These include some financial records, and some records relating to the establishment and expansion of the Fund, as at that time it was closely linked to the Committee of Visitors of Hanwell Asylum.</p> <p>For administrative reports and accounts see also records of the Middlesex sessions.</p> <p>For a list of the administrative records surviving with the Middlesex County Council records see separate list reference Q.A.F.</p></span>

Documents which contain confidential information are CLOSED for 100 years.

Transferred to the Greater London Record Office, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB with the records of Hanwell Asylum 18 August 1983 (Acc 1874) and 29 May 1986 (Acc 2283)

In 1835 Col. Clitherow, Chairman of the Committee of Visitors of Hanwell Asylum, brought to the attention of Queen Adelaide his scheme for a fund "with the object of assisting necessitous and deserving persons who have been mentally afflicted and who, on discharge cured from their Asylum, are in special need of help to enable them to make a fresh start in life". Queen Adelaide approved of the scheme, gave it her patronage and opened the Fund with a donation of £100. By 1840 the Fund's income was too low to properly fulfill its aims and by renewed subscriptions the Fund was substantially enlarged. On the opening of the second Middlesex Asylum at Colney Hatch in 1852 a similar fund, the Queen Victoria Fund was established for the benefit of its patients. However, its income was never sufficient and it was assisted and administered by the Queen Adelaide Fund until its formal consolidation with the Queen Adelaide Fund in 1889. The Queen Adelaide Fund was established to help patients from the County of Middlesex. When in 1889 the County of London was formed, the Queen Adelaide Fund was jointly administered by Trustees from Middlesex County Council and London County Council but still assisted only patients from the old Middlesex area i.e. London north of the Thames excluding the City of London. However some funds were reserved in the London (Surrey) Benevolent Fund for the benefit of patients from the County of London south of the Thames. In 1909 this Fund was also consolidated into the Queen Adelaide Fund.