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Dr henry felix fenton, medical superintendent
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Dr Fenton served the Powick Lunatic Asylum for over forty years, thirty of them as Medical Superintendent. He was born at Hatfield, near Doncaster in Yorkshire in 1882, the son of Henry Arthur Fenton, a physician and surgeon, and his wife Emma. He started his medical degree at the University of Edinburgh in 1900, graduating in 1905. It appears that he spent his first few years as a qualified doctor working in Hatfield, as that is his address as given in the Medical Register of 1905. In 1908 the address is given as the County and City Asylum, Powick.
Copy of Medical Register 1901
Medical Directory record for Henry Felix Fenton
He served in the army during the First World War, first with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, then with the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in India. He was also a Red Cross volunteer in Worcester later in the war. In 1915, he became a Freemason in Worcester, serving as Master of the Worcester Lodge, Provincial Grand Mason, and Preceptor of St Amand Preceptory No. 68.
In the 1911 census, Fenton is listed as Assistant Medical Officer at the Powick Lunatic Asylum, and in every electoral register from 1910 until 1951, his address is listed as either ‘The Asylum, Powick’, or the ‘Mental Hospital’. He retired to the village of Hatfield, near Kempsey, as his address in the 1951-53 electoral register is given as The Orchards, Hatfield. In 1955-57, the electoral register gives his address as Quatford, Sling Lane, Malvern.
Fenton became Medical Superintendent in 1920.
“He had been strongly influenced by a Dr. Graves who was… a great believer in focal sepsis. Dr. Graves would visit Powick frequently, and most patients consequently had their tonsils, gall-bladders and most of their teeth extracted on admission.”
One cannot help but wonder whether the patients agreed to these removals.
Fenton’s time at the helm of the asylum does not sound as though it was a very happy time for the patients or staff.
“Dr Fenton apparently had strict moral views and it is said that he would patrol the hospital shrubberies on Sunday evenings armed with an umbrella to make sure that the nurses were not getting up to mischief.”
He also seems to have been somewhat of a miser, the result being that the hospital soon became overcrowded and social control of the patients seems to have became more important than patients’ medical treatment.
“In his day, the utmost economy was exercised: Powick became the cheapest mental hospital in the country and prudent councils from all over the country sent their patients there.”
The belladonna poisoning case in 1921 occurred during Fenton’s time as head of the asylum. Nine patients were inadvertently given a mixture of glycerine and belladonna instead of a purgative draught of glycerine and cascara. Four patients died, but two inquests found that the deaths were a Misadventure. The doctor who had given the draughts was exonerated of any blame.
Dr Fenton retired in 1950. There is no record of his retirement or resignation being announced in the minutes of the South Worcestershire Hospital Management Committee. In the minutes of a meeting that took place on 26 October 1949 there is mention that the Committee had protested to the Minister of Health about the grading of the position of Medical Superintendent at the asylum, and promising their support to Dr Fenton should he make an appeal against this apparent downgrading of his position. There is no further mention of him until the minutes of 22 March 1950, when it is reported that the new Medical Superintendent had taken up his duties, and the Secretary of the Committee was directed to write a letter of thanks to Dr Fenton. This seems rather a paltry end to a career spanning four decades.
In 1924 he married Evelyn May Copp, the daughter of a vicar. They had two daughters, Evelyn, born in 1925 and Audrey, born in 1930.
Fenton died in Worcester on 21 April 1958, leaving an estate of almost £18,000 to his widow, which today is the equivalent of approximately half a million pounds. His funeral took place a week later at Christ Church in Malvern. A report was published in the Evening News & Times on 30 April. Although mention is made in this report of his years of service to the Powick Asylum, the report actually gives more space to his activities within Freemasonry.
Evelyn died on 31 May 1973, leaving £35,340. Their daughter Evelyn married twice, to Kurt Hebel in 1948, and to Sidney Roberts in 1955. The first marriage must have ended in divorce, as there is a record of Hebel marrying again in 1954. There is no record of any children from either marriage. Audrey did not marry, dying in Ledbury in November 2004.
Research by Cathy Broad, 2025.
Related links:-
Guest blog by Cathy Broad: Tragic mistake or negligence at Powick Hospital?
Guest blog by Dr Frank Crompton: The dead hand of Fentonism
Go back to find out about people who were patients at the asylum.