Dr EA Hamilton Pearson was one of the original seven members of staff at the Tavistock Clinic[1] and it was Dr EA Hamilton-Pearson[2] who actually saw the Tavistock Clinic’s first patient, a child, on 27 September 1920[3].
Dr Hamilton Pearson qualified as a doctor in 1912[4] and after a spell in the Royal Army Medical Corps[5] became a surgeon in the Chilean Navy[6]. He trained in psychiatry after taking a resident post at the Lawn at Lincoln[7], which at that time was a private mental hospital for paying patients[8].
Dr EA Hamilton Pearson was the effective head of the Children’s Department[9] as its Director, WA Potts, was ‘honorary’ and his work kept him in Birmingham[10]. Dr EA Hamilton Pearson was also elected to the first Medical Committee in 1931[11].
Not long after the Tavistock Clinic opened Dr EA Hamilton Pearson was joined in the Children’s Department by Dr Alice Hutchison and Dr Charles Burns[12]. Pretty much from the outset Hugh Crichton-Miller made it an established practice at the Tavi that the children’s psychiatrists also to interviewed the parents and later home and family conditions were investigated by volunteer social workers[13].
One of these voluntary social workers, Doris Robinson, was later selected to go to the United States to study child guidance under the Commonwealth Scheme and became one of the doctors in the Children’s Department[14].
From the early days the Children’s Department dealt with a wide range of ‘abnormalities of conduct’, ranging from nail-biting and night terrors to lying and stealing[15]. Key to the analysis of children were the psychological and intelligence quotient tests that were developed during the First World War[16]. Both WA Potts and Hamilton Pearson were well versed in these methods[17].
From 1923 members of the Children’s Department also started to give lectures at the Tavi and Dr EA Hamilton Pearson and Dr Alice Hutchison spoke on the psychology and abnormalities of childhood[18].
The biggest change to the work of the Children’s Department came in 1932 when the Tavi moved to Torrington Place/Malet Place in 1932[19]. The additional space, the Children’s Department occupied almost the entire ground floor[20], which made possible new methods of treatment, particularly around the use of play, for which there was a dedicated play-room[21] with a primitive one way screen for students to observe children’s behavior[22]. As well as the extra space the Children’s Department added extra staff, creating an interdisciplinary team that included: speech therapists, play therapists, psychological and social work staff[23].
Already in his 60s Dr EA Hamilton Pearson resigned from the Tavistock Clinic in 1939, at the start of the Second World War, and went back to the sea joining the Merchant Navy as a medical officer on-board the ships that were taking child evacuees to overseas[24]. After the war he worked at the Children’s Branch of the Home Office as a senior medical officer, until his death[25].
Author: Glenn Gossling 2020
[1] JR Rees, Reflections, p25, The United States Committee of the World Mental health Federation, 1966
[2] JR Rees, Reflections, p25, The United States Committee of the World Mental health Federation, 1966
[3] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p14, Routledge, 1970
[4] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970
[5] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970
[6] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970
[7] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970
[8] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970
[9] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p29, Routledge, 1970
[10] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p14, Routledge, 1970
[11] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p51, Routledge, 1970
[12] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p29, Routledge, 1970
[13] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p29, Routledge, 1970
[14] Tavistock Square Clinic for Functional Nervous Disorders, Report for the Years 1920 – 1927, p14
[15] Tavistock Square Clinic for Functional Nervous Disorders, Report for the Years 1920 – 1927, p14
[16] B Shephard, War of Nerves, p17, Jonathan Cape, 2000
[17] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p25, Routledge, 1970
[18] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p25, Routledge, 1970
[19] The Institute of Medical Psychology (The Tavistock Clinic), Report for the period 1st January to 31st December 1932, p5
[20] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p46, Routledge, 1970
[21] The Institute of Medical Psychology (The Tavistock Clinic), Report for the period 1st January to 31st December 1932, p8
[22] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p47, Routledge, 1970
[23] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p48, Routledge, 1970
[24] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p97, Routledge, 1970
[25] HV Dicks, 50 Years of the Tavistock Clinic, p15, Routledge, 1970