John Haydon Langdon Down (1828-1896) was born in Torpoint, Cornwall. He qualified in pharmacy and took a degree in medicine at the London Hospital Medical School. After his degree he was appointed Medical Superintendent at the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots. He opened Normansfield Hospital in May 1868. Besides being the Medical Superintendent at Normansfield, he worked at the London Hospital and had a private practice at 81 Harley Street. Normansfield was first known as 'White House' and became 'Normansfield Training Institution for Imbeciles', a Private Home for the "care, education and treatment of those of good social position who present any degree of mental deficiency".
His goal was to run Normansfield as a family home and educate residents. Young children played games in the Kindersaal under the theatre, and in school children were taught reading, writing and arithmetics. In those days Normansfield was highly approved of.
Langdon Down was married to Mary Crellin. They had four children, but Everleigh and Lilian died at a young age. Reginald and Percival took over the management of the hospital. It remained under control of the Langdon-Down family for 102 years.
Langdon Down described and researched the condition known as Down's Syndrome, which has been the official definition by the World Health Organization since 1965.
In 1951 the Langdon Down family decided to sell Normansfield as it was no longer possible to run Normansfield as a private institution. In the following years many problems occurred due to bad management and poor standards of care and poor conditions of the facilities. This led to a strike in 1976 and an inquiry into the conditions at Normansfield in 1978.
I would like to thank the Langdon Down Centre Trust for providing the photograph of Langdon Down.