Ben Quilty – Captain S from After Afghanistan 2012

1926: ‘At luncheon Dr. Jones said that the Mont Park institution could accommodate 1,400 patients.’

1924: ‘In Their Own Interests.

Emphatic assurances that returned soldier mental patients at Mont Park, who have been transferred from the control of the Repatriation department to the State authorities will benefit by the change, were given by the Chief Secretary (Dr. Argyle) yesterday.

Dr. Argyle said that the patients would be cared for by the same medical men and attendants who had looked after them previously, and there would be no question of keeping the military cases in the same quarters as the civil cases. He was a re-turned soldier himself, and as long as headministered the Chief Secretary’s department they would be kept apart. Until the military mental cases were provided for, patients could not be removed from the Yarra Bend Asylum. The position was that nearly the whole of the Mont ParkAsylum was empty, because one wing and the kitchens were occupied by the repatriation officials. Until the State authorities obtained the use of the accommodation they could not accept any more patients for treatment at Mont Park.’

1920: ‘Soldier claims damages. Doctors and Constable Sued.  

A Supreme Court writ claiming £3.000  as damages has been issued by Frederick Charles Nolan, returned soldier, against W. B. Heyward, Joseph Thomas Hollow,  and Terence McSweeney, medical prac-titioners, of Mont Park military hospital;William Ernest Jones, Inspector-Generalof Hospitals for the Insane; and WilliamWard and Thomas Oswald Morris, cons-tables of police, in respect of Nolan’s re-moval from his home to a military hos-pital. It is alleged by the plaintiff that on or about December 23, 1919, the constables. entered his home in Armstrong street, Ballarat, where he resided with his mother, assaulted him, and forcibly re-moved him to the cells at the local watch house, and subsequently to the Mont Park military hospital, where he was detained until May 8 last. On that date, under a writ of habeas corpus, he was discharged by a justice of the Supreme Court.’

 a history:

“SOLDIER CLAIMS DAMAGES.” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 31 Aug 1920: 5. Web. 17 Jul 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4586910&gt;

“SOLDIER MENTAL PATIENTS.” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 4 Apr 1924: 18. Web. 17 Jul 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1904864&gt;.

“CARE OF INSANE.” The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1957) 19 Aug 1926: 15. Web. 17 Jul 2015 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3803308&gt;.