Barbara Robb (née Anne, 15 April 1912 – 21 June 1976) was a British campaigner for the well-being of older people, best known for founding and leading the pressure group AEGIS (Aid for the Elderly in Government Institutions) and for the book Sans Everything: A Case to Answer.Barbara Robb, Sans Everything: A case to answer (London: Nelson, 1967)
A professional psychotherapist, Robb founded AEGIS after witnessing inadequate and inhumane treatment of one of her former patients, and other elderly women, during a visit to Friern Hospital. AEGIS campaigned to improve the care of older people in long-stay wards of National Health Service (NHS) psychiatric hospitals. In 1967, Robb compiled Sans Everything: A Case to Answer, a controversial book, detailing the inadequacies of care provided for older people, which prompted a nationwide scandal. Although initially official inquiries into these allegations reported that they were "totally unfounded or grossly exaggerated",'Sans Everything (Reports of Inquiries)' Hansard HC Deb 09 July 1968 vol 768 cc213–6, 214 her campaigns led to revealing other instances of ill-treatment, which were accepted and prompted the government to implement NHS policy changes.Anon, 'Disturbing report on a hospital: health authorities to be asked to review standards of care' Times, 16 May 1974, 16
Early life Born into a landed Roman Catholic recusant family in Yorkshire, Barbara Anne had a privileged early life, a convent education, and attended finishing school in Kensington, London. She danced with the Vic-Wells company,Anon, 'The patients' campaigner', Hampstead and Highgate Express, 25 June 1976 the forerunner of the Royal Ballet, but an ankle injury ended her dancing career. Instead, she studied theatre and stage design at the Chelsea School of Art. At Chelsea, she met Brian Robb, an artist, cartoonist and illustrator. They married in 1937.Anon, 'Burghwallis Hall Wedding: granddaughter of Major ELS Anne' Yorkshire Post, 22 July 1937
Robb's grandfather, Major Ernest Charlton Anne (1852–1939) inspired her humanitarian outlook. Robb recalled his words many years later: "when you see somebody needing help – help him" and "wherever there were nettles there were sure to be dock leaves to cure the sting [...] Remember that everything in life is like the nettles, there are always dock leaves if only you look hard enough."Anne Allen, 'One woman who refused to pass by..' Sunday Mirror, 9 July 1967
Amy Anne, Robb's mother, died of cancer in 1935, and her brother, Robert Anne, was killed on active service in the Second World War in 1941.Nicholas Kingsley, 'Landed families of Britain and Ireland' https://landedfamilies.blogspot.co.uk/
Middle years (1940s–1965) During the 1940s, Robb trained in Jungian psychotherapy with some guidance from a psychoanalyst and Dominican priest Father Victor White. Robb undertook a "remarkable self-analysis",White to Jung, 19 January 1947, in Ann Lammers, Adrian Cunningham (eds) The Jung-White Letters (London: Routledge, 2007) 68 and mainly taught herself the techniques of the discipline. White corresponded and collaborated with Carl Jung. Letters between them refer to Robb's dreams and their interpretation, her personality and appearance; Jung wrote, "She decidedly leaves you guessing", and that she was "an eyeful and beyond!"Jung to White, 21 September 1951, Lammers and Cunningham, Jung-White, 168–169 White called her "quite a corker" and did not quite know how to "deal with" her.White to Jung, 7 October 1951, Lammers and Cunningham, Jung-White, 169–170
Until 1965, Robb practised as a psychotherapist. She and Brian lived in a small cottage in Hampstead, each of the three floors measuring little more than 2.5-by-3.5 metres. They wanted children, but had none. They had a good social life, including in the company of artists and politicians, often left-wing, and holidayed in Venice, where Brian painted. Robb enjoyed fashionable clothes and hats; C.H. Rolph wrote in his memoir, "Even if it were possible to forget Barbara, it would not be possible to forget those extraordinary, carefully chosen, and obviously expensive hats, with which she seemed to transmute every occasion into a kind of one-woman Ascot."CH Rolph, Further Particulars (Oxford: OUP, 1987) 183
Visit to Friern Hospital, 1965
White introduced Amy Gibbs (1891–1967) to Robb in 1943, for psychotherapy. Gibbs was well for the next 20 years. She worked as a seamstress, and took up art in retirement. In late 1963, Gibbs was admitted to Friern Hospital, a psychiatric institution. She expected a short admission to sort out her medication, which was making her feel "muzzy".Robb, Sans Everything, 69
In December 1964, a mutual friend informed Robb that Gibbs was still in Friern, on a long-stay 'back ward' and wanted to see her. On her first visit in January 1965, Robb was shocked by what she saw and heard on the ward: the patients' uniform haircuts, no activities, institutional clothing, lack of personal possessions including spectacles, dentures and hearing aids, and harshness from the nurses.Robb, Sans Everything, 69–72 Robb began "Diary of a Nobody",Robb, Sans Everything, 69–112 a diary of her visits to ensure that she accurately recorded them, as "I felt that I would never have another really easy moment unless I did everything I could to try to right this situation."
AEGIS (1965–c.1975) Within months Robb established AEGIS, which became one of the country's most determined pressure groups.Anne Robinson, 'Whitewash in the old folks' wards' Sunday Times, 5 April 1970 It was small, elite and high profile, using the media to create publicity. Its team of advisors and active supporters included Brian Abel-Smith; CH Rolph; Audrey Harvey; David Kenworthy, 11th Baron Strabolgi; psychiatrists Russell Barton, Anthony Whitehead and David Enoch; nurses with senior roles at the Royal College of Nursing; and others when needed. Strabolgi ensured that a copy of 'Diary of a Nobody' reached the Minister of Health, Kenneth Robinson, who said he would investigate – but nothing happened.Robb, Sans Everything 91, 97
Robb was passionate about her chosen cause, and worked incessantly to achieve improvement in the long-stay wards. Her cottage became AEGIS's headquarters. She described her campaign style as aggressive: "I'm better suited to Walls of Jericho than to Trojan Horse tactics."Anon, 'The patients' campaigner', Hampstead and Highgate Express, 25 June 1976 The Sunday Times described her extraordinary drive and her punishing schedule—twelve hours a day, six days a week—including acting as counsellor to "hundreds of distressed nurses"Sunday Times, 12 November 1972 and responding personally to a constant stream of correspondence. Through her unrelenting determination and her contacts with the press, according to Richard Crossman (the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services 1968–70), Robb achieved the reputation of being "a terrible danger" to the Government, a "bomb" which it "had to defuse."Richard Crossman, The Diaries of a Cabinet Minister Vol 3. (London: Hamilton and Cape, 1977) 727
Sans Everything
Sans Everything and its reception (1967) AEGIS published Sans Everything in 1967. Chapters by nurses and social workers, together with Robb's 'Diary of a Nobody', described inhumane and inadequate care in long-stay wards in seven hospitals. Wards were over-crowded and under-staffed. Undignified and unkind practices included rough handling, teasing, slapping, swearing at patients and rushed 'production-line' bathing of over 40 elderly and frail patients in a single morning. There was little, if any, privacy, including for personal care. Bed time could be as early as 5pm. Some wards were locked and unstaffed at night, with senior staff disregarding the risks, for example, of fire. There was lack of medical attention, and usually no attempt at rehabilitation. The practices often evolved from attempts to devise time-saving methods to get through the workload and manage large numbers of patients in overcrowded environments, or were due to ignorance of modern psychiatric and geriatric treatment and care. A stereotypic understanding of inevitable and hopeless chronic decline in old age pervaded and contributed to staff negativity. Staff who complained or wanted to change practices were accused of being disloyal, and could be victimized to the point of resigning or being dismissed from their posts. The book proposed remedies, including specialist psychiatric services to treat, rehabilitate and support mentally unwell older people, based on the model practised at Severalls Hospital in Colchester, which prevented admission and enabled discharge;Anthony Whitehead, 'A comprehensive psychogeriatric service' Lancet, 1965, ii, 583–586 building homes for rent on surplus land around the psychiatric hospitals to generate income for the NHS to pay for better services and accommodation for older people;AEGIS, Project 70 (London: AEGIS, 1966) and ways of monitoring, to ensure high standards, through improved NHS complaints procedures, a hospital ombudsman and an inspectorate.Abel-Smith, Robb, Peter Thomson, Anthony Whitehead in Sans Everything, 116–135 Discussion at the Ministry did not lead to action.Claire Hilton 'Developing psychogeriatrics in England: a turning point in the 1960s?' Contemporary British History, 2016, 30, 40–72, 47 Doi:10.1080/13619462.2015.1049263
Throughout AEGIS' campaign, responses from health service staff, politicians, patients and their relatives, the media and the wider public ranged from absolute endorsement of the allegations of bad practice, such as by the pressCH Rolph, 'Whiter-than-white paper' New Statesman, 19 July 1968 and most relatives of patients, to absolute rejection, most apparent in higher tiers of NHS administration.Maurice Hackett, 'Hospitals: we are experts' Sunday Times, 23 July 1967; 'Sans Everything (Reports of Inquiries)' Hansard HC Deb 09 July 1968 vol 768 cc213–6 AEGIS struggled to convince the Ministry of Health and the regional hospital boards (RHBs), which managed the hospitals, about the happenings in them. Robinson publicly criticized the book, and announced on the BBC television news programme 24 Hours that he was sure poor care was almost non-existent and that investigations would demonstrate that. The press criticized Robinson, "who to his shame, seemed to pooh-pooh" the allegations.
Inquiries into the allegations