Constructing a Care System: Medical Voluntarism, and the Disabled ex-servicemen of Lancashire during the First World War

Smith, Nicola (2021) Constructing a Care System: Medical Voluntarism, and the Disabled ex-servicemen of Lancashire during the First World War. Masters by Research thesis (MA), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The level of mutilation inflicted upon the male body during the First World War was unprecedented. Over 75,000 British servicemen returned home with disabilities sustained through physical and psychological trauma, producing substantial challenges in medical care and the treatments available to disabled ex-servicemen to aid the medical and social restoration. Earlier wars had exposed the inadequacies of welfare provisions across the country, prompting a transformation of the medical services available during the First World War, which focused almost entirely on the contribution of medical voluntarism. Returning home with permanent impairments left many disabled ex-servicemen isolated and without the necessary support and state guidance to reintegrate into civilian life. The long-term recovery and rehabilitation of the war-disabled became the responsibility of voluntary organisations and philanthropists who recognised the social anxieties that accompanied disablement. Therefore, the role of voluntary caregiver was fundamental in rehabilitating disabled ex-servicemen between 1914 and 1918. Nonetheless, little attention is given to medical voluntarism and philanthropists' influence and social impact during the First World War, with the Armistice and inter-war period most focused on by historians. Therefore, using Lancashire (predominantly Manchester) as a case study, this research will demonstrate how the region's earlier social understanding of disability and construction of a culture of medical charity enabled its citizens to promote voluntary activity and successfully support the returning disabled ex-servicemen between 1914 and 1918. Acknowledging the diverse roles performed by voluntarists, this thesis recognises those who worked to deliver systematic rehabilitation and medical facilities schemes as a concerted reaction to the state's persistent national disregard for the disabled ex-servicemen during the First World War.