Life after service
Admitted as an In-Pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on the 1st of February 1873, where he was employed as an Infirmary Cook.
The Admission and Discharge Registers of the Chelsea Workhouse show that a "Dennis Conner, Pensioner, Insane" was admitted there on the 19th of January 1876 and discharged to the Infirmary on the 21st of January 1876. There is also a minor discrepancy as to his age, which in 1876 was shown as 55 years in one place and in another as 57.
Photograph of Chelsea Workhouse Infirmary. Date unknown.
(Click on image to enlarge, or here to view original source.)
From the Keeper of the Greater London Record Office comes the information that he was shown in the Register of Lunatics maintained by the Chelsea Board of Guardians as being held under the name of Dennis O'Conner [sic] from the 8th of November 1876 to the 14th of May 1886, the latter date being annotated, "Died, 14th of May."
There does not appear any reason why he was described as "Conner" and as "O'Conner".
Caterham Asylum for Imbeciles, 1872.
(Click here to view original source.)
![Postcard view of the Asylum, Caterham Asylum [probably early 20th century].](connor_d_1125_4LD/connor_d_1125_4LD_caterham_asylum_postcard.jpg "Postcard view of the Asylum, Caterham Asylum [probably early 20th century].")
Postcard view of the Asylum [probably early 20th century].
(Click image to enlarge.)
1881 Census
The Metropolitan District Asylum For Imbeciles, Caterham.
Dennis O'Connor, Patient, married, 63, Not known where born, Lunatic.
He was handed over to the Parish Authorities of St. Luke's, Chelsea, as a "Lunatic" on the 25th of February 1886. Assistance was given to his widow, Mary, from the 15th of February 1898.
Death & burial
"Died, 14th of May", according to an annotation to the Register of Lunatics maintained by the Chelsea Board of Guardians.Death registered
Dennis O'Connor, aged 68, June Quarter 1886, Godstone.
Extract from the Army and Navy Gazette for the 22nd of May 1886:
"A pensioner named Dennis O'Conner [sic] who has been a patient in the Asylum at Caterham since 1876, died in that Institution on the 14th inst. He was one of the "Six Hundred" in the memorable charge at Balaclava, then being in the 4th Light Dragoons.
Major Crabbe, commanding the Guards Depot, kindly acceded to Dr. Elliot's request that the deceased might be buried with military honours and the funeral took place in the Asylum Cemetery on Wednesday. The Revd. Father Roe, of whose church Conner was a member, performed the funeral service and a firing-party from the Guards Depot attended.
The body was carried to the grave by four attendants from the Asylum, who represented various branches of the service, having served respectively in the Royal Artillery, Cavalry, Guards and the Infantry, the bearer representing the cavalry having served in the same regiment as the deceased.
[Then follows a list of those present — which included his wife, a number of non-commissioned officers of the Brigade of Guards, in addition to some pensioners who were fellow-patients of the deceased, amongst them being an old Waterloo man named Samuel Gibson.]
The use of the old Asylum Cemetery was discontinued after the flu epidemic of 1918-20 and a new one taken into use. Both are now no longer used, and the chapels which existed in each have been long demolished. The second cemetery is now [1993] completely taken over by trees and shrubbery and it is impossible to gain admittance. (See photographs in the 4th Hussar file.) The buildings are now known as St. Lawrence's Hospital, although the patients in it are still as when it was a mental asylum. [PB: not sure what EJB meant by last phrase.]
Further information
The Samuel Gibson referred to in the funeral report above was then 96 years old. He had served in the 27th Foot, having enlisted in that regiment in the year 1803.
Samuel Gibson died on the 19th of January 1892 at the age of 101. He was given a funeral with full military honours in Caterham village churchyard, some 50 Guardsmen from the Depot lining the route.