occupied by army pensioners in what is known as the Pensioner Scheme. During this period, the town of Amherstburg and Fort Malden were redesigned to accommodate the large numbers of retired military men living in Upper Canada. As Canada had received responsible government following the Rebellions of 1837–1838, Britain no longer needed to maintain a significant military presence. It has been argued that in order to bring about the easiest transition for traditionally military defence towns such as Amherstburg, Britain enforced the Pensioner Scheme to substitute the standing regular army with pensioners to maintain the authoritative military presence. About 350 individual army pensioners, along with their families, occupied Amherstburg as part of the Pensioner Scheme. They were offered homes and small land grants in accordance with the Ordnance Reserves where in exchange they were employed by the province to act as police and an interim military force. The scheme at Fort Malden was considered to be very successful, not only for the pensioners but also the development of the town. Remaining either continually employed or receiving a full military pension, the retired soldiers were important financial assets to Amherstburg's local economy. Additionally, the pensioners, many being Irish Catholic, added to the cultural development of Amherstburg, maintaining a strong presence until about the 1890s. There are several surviving pensioners' cottages remaining on the grounds of Fort Malden and surrounding the King's Navy Yard that are considered focal points in Historic Amherstburg and remain accessible to the public for tours. 1859–1875: The Asylum Years In 1859, the Pensioner Scheme was abandoned by the British government and ownership of Fort Malden was turned over to the province of Ontario. On 8 June 1859, an Order in Council within the Ontario government determined that Fort Malden would be recommissioned as a provincial insane asylum. Fort Malden was one of many examples where prior ordnance lands were repurposed by order of the province to become asylums, hospitals, or prisons, as these prior forts already possessed many fortified buildings and defences suited for institutional facilities. It was determined that the Malden Lunatic Asylum would act as an extension of the Toronto Lunatic Asylum to house surplus patients. However, many of Fort Malden's buildings had been relatively neglected and so much of the first couple years of the fort's history as an asylum was allotted to necessary reconstruction. This remodeling was performed primarily under the architectural supervision