THE FORGOTTEN

40 years in Sunnyside – ‘Nobody cared about her’

For almost 40 years, Ann Rattray was incarcerated at Christchurch’s Sunnyside Hospital.

She spent half her life at the psychiatric institution and died there alone when she was 80 years old.

There is no record of her ever being visited by her husband or her two surviving children.

Rattray is one of up to 1000 former Sunnyside patients lying in unmarked graves in Christchurch’s Sydenham cemetery.

Her great-great-granddaughter Glenda Rattray is supporting calls led by Christchurch woman Michelle Lomax for a memorial to recognise those who were buried in the cemetery.

‘‘She existed and nobody cared about her, and that is the problem with mental health. It’s that stigma,’’ Rattray said.

‘‘People are people, no matter what illness they have.’’

Rattray, who lives in Christchurch, has spent many years researching her family history and has been able to piece together Ann’s life.

She moved to New Zealand from Scotland with her husband Andrew Rattray and two children in 1880. Five of their children had already died in Scotland before they reached the age of 5.

Rattray was admitted to Sunnyside Hospital in 1883 after being diagnosed with ‘‘delusional insanity’’.

She was pregnant at the time, and six months after arriving she gave birth to a son who was taken away from her. He died eight weeks later of diarrhoea and dehydration.

Glenda Rattray suspects Ann’s surviving sons, who were 17 and 10 when she was admitted to Sunnyside, were told she had died because there was no record or verbal history of them having ever visited her.

The death certificate shows no record of any family.

‘‘It’s presumed no-one cared.’’

But someone cares now and, like others with family members buried at the cemetery, Rattray believes a memorial is the right thing to do.

Christchurch woman Sandra Templeton agrees.

Her great-great-grandmother Emily Whitlow also lies in an unmarked grave at Sydenham.

Whitlow spent 52 years in care, mostly at Sunnyside, but also at the Jubilee Home and Hospital in Woolston. Whitlow died in Sunnyside in 1922, aged 83.

Like Rattray, Templeton says Whitlow also experienced great loss.

She left England, destined for New Zealand in 1859. She married Richard Whitlow soon after arriving in Christchurch and they settled in Kaiapoi, north of the city. Five of their seven children died.

Whitlow was committed to Sunnyside in 1870 and her husband went on to have four more children with his ‘‘housekeeper’’.

Early women settlers had such a hard life, Templeton says, and she believes many of them did not deserve to be incarcerated in these mental institutions.

‘‘It was a way for husbands to get rid of their wives.’’

Sunnyside opened in 1863 as Christchurch’s first ‘‘mental asylum’’. It was closed in 1999 and all its buildings were eventually demolished to make way for a Nga¯ i Tahu housing development.

Many patients were poorly treated, and the extent and depth of the inhumane care has been revisited as part of the Abuse in Care Inquiry.

Former Sunnyside psychiatrist Dr David Baron told the inquiry patients were ‘‘dragged down from a dormitory’’ and forcibly given electroconvulsive therapy while he was there in the 1960s and 1970s.

Patients who died were buried at Sydenham Cemetery in an area designated for ‘‘paupers’’ from the late 1890s through until the 1980s.

Aucklander Peter Andricksen has been researching his family for years and discovered a while ago that his greatgrandmother Berte Andricksen is buried in an unmarked grave at Sydenham.

Police reports obtained by Andricksen state Berte had been violent

She existed and nobody cared about her, and that is the problem with mental health. It’s that stigma. Glenda Rattray Ann Rattray’s great-great-granddaughter

towards her family. She was arrested for ‘‘lunacy’’ and sent to Mt View Asylum in Wellington in 1893, and two years later was transferred to Sunnyside, far away from her family.

She died at Sunnyside in 1905, 10 years after first being admitted. Records show her death was from heart failure. She was 59.

About 30 years ago Peter Andricksen managed to track down Berte’s grave and inquired with Christchurch City Council about putting a plaque or memorial on it.

He says he was told he had to buy the grave first. It was going to cost hundreds of dollars, so he never pursued it.

This week, the council confirmed people must purchase a grave in order to erect a monument or cross at the site. A plot costs $1751, but that cost is waived if the burial happened more than 60 years ago.

Andricksen says he would like to put something on Berte’s grave to acknowledge her life.

He also supports a wider memorial being created to remember all the former Sunnyside patients lying in unmarked graves at Sydenham.