Correspondence between James Crichton-Browne and Captain P.L.Pleadwell

The collection is composed of:

• Letter to 'Dear Captain Pleadwell' - signed James Crichton-Browne - 'Crindau', Dumfries - 26 December 1928 - Refers to: 'travelling and unable to send out Christmas cards this year'; and there is 'no book to send to send you and have not attempted anything beyond a few newspaper articles'; the hope that he might 'buckle too, soon'; and, he is 88, 'but am scarcely personally conscious of the factand still keep up my interest in the passing show'
• Letter to 'Dear Mrs Pleadwell' - signed Audrey Crichton-Browne - 'Crindau', Dumfries - 27 August 1934 - Refers to: expectation of meeting at 'this evening at 8 o clock' and that 'we have no party only the family so pleasedo just what you like about dressing'
• Letter to 'My Dear Mrs Pleadwell' - signed Audrey Crichton-Browne - 'Crindau', Dumfries - 28 August 1934 - Refers to: how Mrs. Pleadwell's husband 'is laid low with bronchitis
• 2 x envelopes - One addressed: To await arrival / Mrs Pleadwell / The Station Hotel / L M & S - The other addressed: , and Mrs Pleadwell / The Station Hotel
• Menu card - Bovril Medical Reception, 15-16 November 1934
• Letter to 'My dear Captain Pleadwell' signed James Crichton Browne - Hans Place, SW - 4 December 1936 - Refers to: his son, Colonel Crichton-Browne 'starting to spend the Winter in Egypt seeking relief from Bronchitis and Emphysema'; to how there is 'a crisis in this country, and don't want an American queen, even from Baltimore'; to Pleadwell's pamphlets 'bearing on the Diet question' and to how malnutrition might be countered by 'the importation of a large quantity of Bovril'
• Christmas Card showing The Midsteeple, Dumfries, and with greeting: With Christmas Greetings / and / All Good Wishes / for the / New Year / from / Sir James and Lady Crichton-Browne / Crindau / Dumfries
• Cover/envelope (part) bearing address of: Captain P. L. Pleadwell / 1528C Allwas [sic] Drive / Honolulu P.H. / USA. Posted Chelsea SW3, 1933, stamped with penny-halfpenny stamp of Edward VIII, uncrowned king

Sir James Crichton-Browne MD FRS was a leading British psychiatrist and medical psychologist. He is famous for studies on the relationship of mental illness to brain injury and for the development of public health policies in relation to mental health. He was also a celebrated author and orator. he was knighted in 1886.

Crichton-Browne was born in Edinburgh on 29 November 1840. His parents were William Alexander Francis Browne (1805–1885) and Magdalene Howden Balfour, daughter of Dr Andrew Balfour of Edinburgh. The addition of Crichton to James's surname was derived from his godmother, Elizabeth Crichton, of Friars Carse, near Dumfries, whose family were instrumental in the financing of the Crichton Institution, Dumfries, where his father was medical superintendent (1838 to 1857). The young James spent much of his childhood at the Crichton. He went to school at Dumfries Academy and then to Trinity College, Glenalmond. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and qualified MRCS in 1861, and MD in 1862 with a thesis on hallucinations. Crichton-Browne was elected one of the undergraduate Presidents of the Royal Medical Society and, in this capacity, he argued for the place of psychology in the medical curriculum.

He worked as an assistant physician in asylums in Exeter, Warwick and Derby, and a brief period on Tyneside. He was appointed Physician-Superintendent of the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum at Wakefield in 1866, and he stayed there for ten years. In 1875, Crichton-Browne was appointed as Lord Chancellor's Visitor in Lunacy, a position which involved the regular examination of Chancery patients throughout England and Wales. This post was held until his retirement in 1922 and he combined it with the development of an extensive London consulting practice.

In 1878, Crichton-Browne became President of the Medico-Psychological Association, and in 1883, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (one of his proposers had been Charles Darwin). He also served as Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Institution from 1889 till 1926. He served as President of the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society from 1892 to 1896 as well. In 1908, he joined the Board of the Bovril Company.

Crichton-Browne was editor of the West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports (1871-1876); he corresponded and collaborated with Charles Darwin; and his most important scientific paper was On The Weight of the Brain (1879). In 1920, Crichton-Browne delivered the first Maudsley Lecture to the Royal Medico-Psychological Association at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. Other works were: Victorian Jottings(1926); What the Doctor Thought (1930); The Doctor's Second Thoughts (1931); and, The Doctor's Afterthoughts (1932).

Sir James Crichton-Browne died in Dumfries on 31 January 1938, at the age of 97.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

Acquired by donation, August 2013. Accession no: E2013.59

Catalogued by Graeme D. Eddie 08 November 2013