Petition launched calling for national memorial for Britain's "Lost Souls"
The calls come after our investigation highlighted how former mental asylum graves were being lost, neglected or even sold
Last updated 3rd Oct 2025
A petition has been launched calling for a national memorial to be created to honour the quarter of a million people mental health patients identified by our 'Lost Souls' investigation.
Earlier this year we outlined how thousands of graves belonging to people who died in Victorian asylums were in danger of being lost, with many sites neglected, and some even sold off.
Families of those inside told us how they were appalled by what's been allowed to happen to these sites, while we heard Europe's largest asylum grave site now lies in private hands, and is inaccessible to the public.
National memorial petition launched for Lost Souls
Now a petition is calling for a national memorial to be erected to try and return dignity to the memory of these so-called "pauper lunatics" who lie in burial sites across the UK.
The petition reads: "Thousands of people died in Victorian-era mental health hospitals and many of their bodies were not claimed by next of kin. Many were buried in unnamed pauper burial plots. Many burial sites are unmarked, neglected, or may even be sold, which we believe dooms patients to an eternity of anonymity.
It goes on to ask for a national memorial to be created, and for communities to be empowered to research and acknowledge sites within their local areas: "We urge the Government to fund a national memorial to show these people had value and deserve to be remembered.
"We believe it'll honour those who've died and been lost, returning dignity to their memory, and may act as a focal point to inspire communities who want to honour these gravesites locally, conduct historic research, and use public records to build a clear picture of who lies within them. We also believe it could help tackle historic shame and stigma and right a historic wrong."
Calls for a national memorial for asylum patients
The petition's creator is Kevin McDonnell, an asylum researcher who appeared in our Lost Souls documentary, and who dedicates his time to painstakingly review and recover asylum records to build a true picture who lived and died there - and where they were buried.
He told our investigation it was crucial that the stories of these people were remembered and heard, saying: "It's a huge wrong, no one knows about it, it's wrong on every level and it needs to be brought out into the public.
"Once these people were in the ground, they were not given a name, they were given a marker with a number on it. That's an absolute disgrace.
"Most of those gravemarkers have now been lost, which is why you can walk over the ground and not realise what's happening.
"It's a shame. A shame in every sense of shame. We're trying to let the world know these people existed."
The Lost Souls investigation uncovers "national scandal"
The Lost Souls investigation, from our Senior Correspondent Mick Coyle has received widespread support for unearthing a "national scandal", with charities, mental health campaigners and politicians across the UK all backing calls for greater recognition of these sites.
The project saw what can happen when communities return dignity to these areas, as well as highlighted other burial grounds at serious risk of being forgotten forever.
Read the petition on the UK government official petitions website
Listen to the Lost Souls documentary
Read more about the Lost Souls project