VPRS 18418 Leave of Absence and Trial Leave Registers, Mental Hospital

This series consists of the Leave of Absence and Trial Leave Registers documenting patients who were on leave from the Beechworth Asylum/Hospital for the Insane/ Mental Hospital for the period 1869-1969.These four registers combine to form a continuous sequence from 1869 to 1988.The registers were maintained to record leave of absence and trial leave for patients. Each entry was made chronologically. There is an index at the front of Units 2, 3 and 4 in the form of groupings of name by letter of the alphabet.References are to the relevant folios in each register respectively. There may be several references in a register for a particular patient. All entries are double page entries.Trial Leave tended to be of longer duration. Patients were often discharged whilst on Trial Leave. However, discharge could sometimes occur during Leave of Absence. Short term trial leave was another term for leave of absence.The registers contain entries under the following headings: register number (being separate sequences for males and females), whether male or female, name of patient (surname first), number in Admissions Register, period of leave allowed, dates of leave extended, date of return to Asylum or discharge, and the name, relationship and address of guardian (Unit 2 only). In some instances the patient died whilst on leave and so was not returned or discharged.Unit 2 includes a summary of patients on trial leave during the period 1929-1936. This is at the back of the book.Units 3 and 4 refer to Trial Leave only. They continue the numbering sequence from the beginning of the first register and therefore belong to that record series. The first page of Unit 3 records entries brought forward from the previous book.The numbering sequence changes for a period covered by Unit 4. The numbers are preceded by "F" and "M" prefixes ( referring to females and males) for the period March 1969 to December 1973. During the period from July 1973 to July 1974 the numbering sequence for males is "5376-5422". The numbering reverts to a single sequence comprising both males and females from July 1974 to the end of the register in October 1988.In accordance with s.60 of the Lunacy Act 1867 (No. 309), the superintendent of any asylum or licensed house, with the consent in writing of the superintendent thereof if not himself such superintendent, and also in both cases with the consent in writing of the inspector, could send any patient to any specified place for any definite time for the benefit of his health, and could also permit any patient to be absent from any such asylum or house upon trial for such period as may be thought fit. Further, the Inspector himself could permit any patient to be absent from any asylum or licensed house upon trial for such period as he saw fit.In accordance with s.87 of the Lunacy Act 1890 (No. 1113), the inspector was authorised to permit any patient to be absent from any asylum or licensed house upon trial for such period as he thought fit.Reference: AS/1995/196-02, 03, 04, 09