The Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency was a body overseeing the treatment of the mentally ill in England and Wales. It was created by the Mental Deficiency Act 1913 to replace the Commissioners in Lunacy, under the Home Office however it was independent in that it reported to the Lord Chancellor who had responsibility for investigating breaches of care and integrity. The board was transferred to the Ministry of Health by the Ministry of Health Act 1919, and reorganised in 1930.
The board consisted of a chairman, two senior medical commissioners, one senior legal commissioner, six commissioners including lawyers and doctors, six inspectors and administrative staff. By law, at least one of these had to be a woman. The commissioners of the board travelled around England and Wales ensuring that those detained under mental health legislation were legally in custody, their care was appropriate, and moneys and other properties owned by patients were not being misused or stolen.
The board was based in Northumberland Avenue, London, until 1939 when it was moved to Hobart House, Grosvenor Place.
Its functions were transferred to the Minister of Health by the National Health Service Act 1946
Announcements of members were carried in the major national newspapers, including The Times .
From the start of 1931, the board was reconstituted, with a chairman and four other members. L.G. Brock continued as chairman, with S. J. Fraser MacLeod, C. Hubert Bond, Arthur Rotherham, Ellen Pinsent.
The Commissioners in Lunacy or Lunacy Commission were a public body established by the Lunacy Act 1845 to oversee asylums and the welfare of mentally ill people in England and Wales. It succeeded the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy.
William Rees-Thomas CB FRCP FRSM was a Welsh psychiatrist. He was Medical Senior Commissioner for the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency.
Ruth Frances Darwin CBE was Commissioner of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency and an advocate of eugenics.
The New York State Hospital Commission is a subdivision of the New York State Department of Health. It was called the State Commission in Lunacy from 1895 to 1912.
Sir William Patrick Byrne was a senior member of the British Civil Service.
The Mental Deficiency Act 1913 was an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom creating provisions for the institutional treatment of people deemed to be "feeble-minded" and "moral defectives". "It proposed an institutional separation so that mental defectives should be taken out of Poor Law institutions and prisons into newly established colonies."
Sir Charles Hubert Bond KBE FRCP was a British psychiatrist and mental health administrator.
Ida, Lady Darwin was the wife of Sir Horace Darwin, member of the Ladies Dining Society, and a co-founder in 1913 of the Central Association for the Care of the Mentally Defective.
Sir Frederick Willis CB KBE was an English lawyer and civil servant. He was made CB in 1914 and KBE in 1920. He was chairman of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency from 1921 to 1928.
Sir Laurence George Brock CB was a British civil servant. He was chairman of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency from 1928 to 1945.
Sir Edward Marriott Cooke KBE was a British doctor and Commissioner in Lunacy from 1898 to 1914, and a Commissioner of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency.
Robert Cunyngham Brown was a British psychologist and medical administrator.
Bedford Pierce was an English medical doctor, a Commissioner to the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency and Consulting Physician to The Retreat, York.
The Mental Health Act 1959 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales which had, as its main objectives, to abolish the distinction between psychiatric hospitals and other types of hospitals and to deinstituitionalise mental health patients and see them treated more by community care.
Kate Fraser CBE was a pioneering Scottish psychiatrist who sought to improve the well being and treatment of mentally ill patients. She was the first female Deputy Commissioner for the General Board of Control for Scotland in 1914 and Commissioner in 1935.
Bellsdyke Hospital, also known as Stirling District Lunatic Asylum ('SDLA') or Stirling District Asylum, is a former psychiatric hospital at Larbert, Falkirk that was opened in June 1869 and largely closed in 1997. It was an asylum set up by the Stirling District Lunacy Board.
The Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1857 formed mental health law in Scotland from 1857 until 1913.
The Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland or Lunacy Commission for Scotland were a public body established by the Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1857 to oversee asylums and the welfare of mentally ill people in Scotland.
Sir Frederick Needham was an English physician who was a Commissioner in Lunacy of the Board of Control for Lunacy and Mental Deficiency from 1892–1924.
Sir Edward Rodolph Forber, KCB, CBE was an English civil servant.