Edward Denis de Vitre (24 March 1806 – 4 October 1878) was an English physician, twice mayor of Lancaster, England, and one of the founders of the

Royal Albert Hospital The Royal Albert Hospital was a hospital in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. It opened in 1870 as an institution for the care and education of children with learning problems. By 1909 there were 662 children in residence. Following new legi ...

(originally ''The Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots and Imbeciles of the Northern Counties'') in Lancaster. He was born at

Irthington Irthington is a village and civil parish within the City of Carlisle district in Cumbria, England, situated to the north-east of Carlisle Lake District Airport. The population in 2011 was 860 according to the 2011 census. Toponymy The name Ir ...

, near

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

, and studied at the University of Edinburgh, gaining his MD in 1827. He moved to Lancaster in 1832, and in 1840 became Visiting Physician at the

Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum Lancaster Moor Hospital, formerly the Lancaster County Lunatic Asylum and Lancaster County Mental Hospital, was a mental hospital in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, which closed in 2000 (the mental health departments left in 1991, but others re ...

. In 1864, James Brunton offered £2,000 towards a new asylum for "idiots and imbeciles" and asked De Vitre's assistance. De Vitre was the Chairman of the Committee for the new asylum and oversaw its establishment. The foundation stone was laid in 1868 and it received its first patients on 14 December 1870. De Vitre died at Elms, Bare, Morecambe on 4 October 1878. In September 2012, a community resource centre for the Lancashire Care NHS Trust, in Ashton Road near the former Royal Albert Hospital, was named DeVitre House in his honour, after a competition in which local residents were asked to choose its name. The hospital itself closed in 1996 and the buildings now house an Islamic educational establishment for girls,

Jamea Al Kauthar Islamic College Jamea Al Kauthar is an independent academic girls’ establishment located in the former Royal Albert Asylum in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, educating girls in a Muslim tradition over the age of 11. Jamea Al Kauthar started with 60 pupils ...

References

External links

* ''(Photograph of De Vitre c. 1860)'' * 1806 births 1878 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors People from Irthington Mayors of Lancaster, Lancashire Alumni of the University of Edinburgh {{UK-med-bio-stub