Honorary Archivist

Find out more about the College's Honorary Archivist, Dr Claire Hilton.

Claire Hilton was a NHS consultant old age psychiatrist in London from 1998 to 2017. She has a MA and PhD in history, and she has authored three open-access monographs:

• Improving Psychiatric Care for Older People: Barbara Robb's Campaign 1965-1975 (2017)
• Civilian Lunatic Asylums During the First World War (2021)
• Petty Tyranny and Soulless Discipline? Patients, Policy and Practice in Public Mental Hospitals in England, 1918–1930 (2025)

She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. While RCPsych Historian in Residence, she was awarded a RCPsych 'President’s Medal' for her historical work contributing to mental healthcare education, policy and practice. Her current research is on mental hospitals in England in the 1920s.

Claire holds the role of the College's Honorary Archivist between 1 January 2024 and 1 January 2029.

Read some of her past blog posts on the Library and Archives blog.