Lasting Impact
I thought that the article on shell shock was interesting, and good for how it discussed the way that attitudes to this condition gradually changed.
My paternal grandfather served in the First World War, being taken prisoner during the Battle of the Somme on 26 September because of a wound in the leg, and you featured part of his story in a previous issue. However, when I started family history, his surviving daughter told me about helping her mother to nurse her dad who sometimes had nightmares about being in water, loaded with his kit and unable to swim. It appears that his battalion was sent to Gallipoli in 1915 where an error led to the men being dropped off in water that was far too deep. We think that this was the cause of these nightmares, and shows that traumatic experiences weren’t only the obvious ones of being under fire. He also seems to have had some difficulty holding down a job, which may or may not also be attributed to PTSD.
I’ve a couple of photos taken of him during training and comparing them with his wedding photo in 1920, it’s quite hard to believe that it is the same man.
Also, as a volunteer with the In From The Cold Project ( infromthecold.org), searching for ‘missing’ burials of those killed by war, I’ve found an example of a young soldier who committed suicide rather than return to his unit to fight, which surely is an extreme response to trauma.
I think this topic is still one
that people don’t feel very comfortable with, but we need to face up to it as a part of the complete story of warfare. Jenni Dobson, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Thank you Jenni for sharing your grandfather’s experience and highlighting the project you are working on.