Andover Workhouse Scandal 1846

• The Andover Union in Hampshire had been held up as the model of post-1834 Poor Law administration. Outdoor relief had been abolished and the strictest dietary was being used in the union workhouses. The union administration was praised in the annual reports of the Poor Law commissioners.
• In 1837, the guardians appointed Colin M'Dougal and his wife as the Andover workhouse master and matron. So confident they'd found the right people, they only made cursory inspections. However, reports began filtering out that all was not well, causing Thomas Wakley, an MP for Finsbury, to question in the House of Commons about the situation.
• The Poor Law commissioners ordered Henry Parker, assistant commissioner with responsibility for the area, to investigate. He discovered that all the rumours were true and that a range of abuses were occurring in the workhouse, ranging from sexual abuse of the female paupers why M'Dougal and his son, to serving even less food that the worst dietary, forcing starving paupers to suck meat and marrow from the bones they were meant to be crushing.
• The Poor Law commissioners tried to extricate themselves by:

  • sacking M'Dougal
  • blaming Parker for not uncovering the abuses sooner - forgetting they had reduced the number of assistant commissioners from 21 to 9, making his job impossible
  • sacking Parker
  • issuing an Order forbidding bone crushing