The Curious Case of Sherlock Hare: Race, class, and mental health in British Burma

Abstract

Abstract: In 1891, Sherlock Hare was classified a “criminal lunatic” and removed from British Burma. The exact nature of Hare’s insanity is vague; in the official records of the trial, doctors contradict themselves, spurious witnesses are produced, and evidence of mental illness is flimsy at best. Hare was apparently so convincing in his sane moments that the captain of the Elton allowed him to disembark before reaching the Albert Dock, where asylum officials were waiting to take him into custody. The resulting embarrassment for the British government led to an inquiry into the procedure for European persons deemed criminally insane in the colonies. The story of Sherlock Hare – his arrest, evaluation, incarceration, and subsequent removal to England – reveals not only a great deal about Victorian perspectives toward mental health, but also the relevance of race and class in the treatment of afflicted persons in the colonies. British perspectives toward race and class in the metropole scripted the experience of each person who entered the fledgling apparatus of mental health care in British Burma.