Inspired by German and American examples, he successfully asked the council to construct a system of villas at Bexley, advocated the separate treatment of acute and chronic cases, and introduced parole-style rewards for 'industrious' patients. Like some of his earlier administrative innovations, villas became popular and inspired similar designs elsewhere. Stansfield also served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I, and as a consultant on nervous diseases to the Eastern Command. Although he was appointed a CBE in the 1919 Birthday Honours for his war work, historians have drawn attention to his scepticism about shell shock, his attitudes towards eugenics and heredity, and his potentially misogynistic views about medical officers marrying. He nonetheless married twice, settling with his first wife at a house in Wimbledon where he enjoyed tending to the gardens; after her death, he married a second time in 1929 and moved to a villa in Sanremo, Italy, where he lived out his retirement.
