Sad Soldiers
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Transcript of Sad Soldiers
Coming home from World War I (WWI) for the majority of the men was a real struggle. Post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was a massive issue facing returned service men, but it
wasn’t the only reason. Family issues also occurred, although they aren’t as well -known as
PTSD. Family wounds included the return to family life and making ends met for families,
especially ones with young children. This was due to the fact that if men came home and
were able to return to work, they usually had to go out and find a job. And if they were
unfortunate and couldn’t return to work, their wives (or children) had to go to work, usually
with a reduced pay. Also another issue facing the returned soldiers was that of venereal
diseases, with the three following in particular – bubonic plague, yellow fever and
tuberculosis, which was also known as the ‘family disease.’
“Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following an
experience or the witnessing of a life-threatening event such as military combat, natural
disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical/sexual assault in adult or
childhood.”i What the men saw and experienced on the battlefields would have been
nothing short of horrific, and something that the rest of us could only ever imagine. You may
have heard the term ‘shell-shock’ or ‘combat exhaustion.’ These were the names that were
used to describe PTSD (before PSTD was added to “our vocabulary in 1980.” ii) Men who
were suffering from PTSD were normally experiencing nightmares and flashbacks. Although
this is a very simplistic way to think of PTSD. Other means that people may be affected by
PTSD include that they “have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged and these
symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair their life, as
well as their family’s life.iii”
“People with PTSD experience three different kinds of symptoms. The firs t set of symptoms
involves reliving the trauma in some ways such as becoming upset when confronted with a
traumatic reminder of thinking about the trauma when you are trying to do something else.
The second set of symptoms involves either staying away from places or people that remind
you of the trauma, isolating yourself from other people, or feeling numb. The third
symptoms includes things such as feeling on guard, irritable, or startling easily. iv”
Unfortunately PTSD is not a condition that was dealt with by the men. It affects the rest of
their family and even affects the wider community that they live in. The women saw the first
hand effects that PTSD had on their husbands, sons and fathers. Some women would have
heard their family members’ screams and may still have vivid memories of what they saw.
Archie Barwick’s diary (which was kept during WWI) shows how men could not come
back to Australia as anything but physically and psychologically impaired. His entry for the
26th May 1916 reads as follows:
“This morning we had bayonet fighting with our gas helmets on. They are a
horrible thing to wear – it nearly makes you sick for the first time or two,
your throat gets real dry and your eyes start to water and smart like anything
– but still they are a very necessary thing for without them a man would be
dead in a few minutes do take it as a matter of course and put up with it as
best we can. There has been a very heavy bombardment going on for the last
day or so. It sounds towards Ypres.v”
Another entry which was written on the 29th December 1916 shows the harsh winter that all
the soldiers were fighting including Archie from the Somme:
“We had a few anxious moments last night. Old Fritz dropped heavy shells all
around us and the clods fell like rain on our slender little humpy. We were
expecting every shell to land right on us, but they knocked off in time. A man
would be dead stiff to stop a shell right back here, but you never know when
one will blot you out for he drops them at random day and night and they are
likely to catch someone.vi”
Photo 1 (Left) Summary: A wounded
Australian soldier, who lost both
hands, writes a letter using the
stumps of his wrists, while
convalescing at the No. 1 Australian
Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield, England.
Australian War Memorial negative
number H16947.
Physical disablement was also something that returned service men had to contend
with, alongside their families. Bernard Long recalls his childhood memories with his father
who was physically impaired:
“Dad war in World War I serving three years on the Western Front. Every day
of our lives we lived with the reality as he faced war’s impact: washing out
the great gouge in his leg from shrapnel, the dent in his chest, and always the
non-being of his right arm, shattered and amputated – another piece of
shrapnel. Phantom pains would sometimes wrack him for hours. He never
whinged. He got on with living. His pre-war life as an orchardist had been
destroyed…occasionally as he sat on the border of his magnificent garden
musing on the mysteries of his chooks you would see a flicker of
sadness. But that was all.vii”
It was obvious that men would
have found it hard to hard to
assimilate back into family life
when dealing with psychological
and physical conditions from war.
But not all men returned to the stereotypical family life, where the father was the
sole breadwinner. Some men became stay-at-home Dad’s due to their wounds. Others
never returned to the family homes and rather went to mental hospitals. Sometimes the
Photo 2 (Left) Summary: Some
severely disabled soldiers were
unable to live with their families and
resided in ‘Anzac Hostels.’ This
photograph shows two patients in
the grounds of the Glenelg Anzac
Hostel. Adelaide, with nurses and
visitors.
Australian War Memorial negative number P03845.007.
presence of father’s staying at home is that of a positive memory. One of these comes from
Marvis (whose memory was recorded in the book Shattered ANZACs):
“He was very helpful with us kids. I mean with a big family like that, and the
thing is, well there wasn’t that much money, but potatoes and everything
were cheap… but he always peeled the potatoes, and when we were little he
used to wash us kids, you know, so we’d sit up on the kitchen table, because
the bathrooms weren’t what they are today and wash us, stand us in the dish
of water and wash our feet and always shine our shoes and everything like
that.viii”
Other children of returned soldiers have memories of their fathers as ‘damaged goods.’ Joan
and Gwen respectively remember their Dads:
Joan: “It was the first time that I saw my father not as the strong protector, but
that he was somebody who had I suppose a mortal weakness, and probably
made me as a young child, insecure, and also the fact that he never said
anything that indicated any form of self-pity, but I suppose that
demonstrated that he wasn’t a super-hero to me.ix”
Gwen: “I was really sorry for Dad. I was scared stiff. I couldn’t make out what was
wrong with Dad. When you’re about eight or nine, you think your Dad might
die, and that was what was really frightening to me, was that Dad was going
to die. He was so upset, and I thought he might have been going to die, you
see, and I was scared stiff. I was really frightened. We had to sort of help him
home, and Mum got him home into bed.x”
So as a result it comes as no surprise that making ends meet was a struggle for most
families. Due to the all the impair soldiers above, many of the wives or partners had to go
and enter the workforce to make the ends meet for their families. The wives were seen as
the ‘financial planners’ of the household and so took measures to reduce the household
expenditure. One of these measures that was taken by families was to write to charities and
ask them for their assistance. One family that done this was the Mead family. “Mrs Mead
described her circumstances to the Tubercular Soldiers’ Aid Society:
“…we are not having proper food – I have dispensed with the weekend joint
for weeks now, trying in all ways to lessen expenses – but it is all too big an
undertaking to try and pull back rent and pay rates which have all now
started – The children are needing warmer clothes… Our position is more
serious than it has ever been and I have been in very poor health myself
lately.xi”
Even unmarried men were finding it tough to make ends meet. Archie Duggan lived with his
sisters and mother in Adelaide. “Archie also turned to the Tubercular Soldiers’ Aid Society
for assistance:
At present there are four of us at home and our total income is 4 pounds a
week – 30/- from me [from a private superannuation fund], 30/- from my
sister Audrey and 1 pound from Betty who is teaching at Moonta. 30/- of this
goes for rent, so that 2 pounds/10 has to keep four people in food, besides
firing, electric – light, gas, water and district council rates and land tax.xii”
It is understandable but there was a sad fact that between 1918 and 1922, the number of
disabled soldiers’ that were dependants increased significantly. The following table shows
the number of pensions that were being paid out.xiii
Year Number of pensions:
disabled soldiers
Number of pensions:
disabled soldiers’
dependants:
1918 40 702 32 154
1919 71 512 59 581
1920 90 389 86 448
1921 79 491 93 995
1920 76 249 102 046
I think that there would have been some men who would have felt like they fail as being the
‘man of the house.’ They may have also feel as their masculinity was gone. It means that
family relationship would have been strained.
Venereal diseases ran strife through soldier’s and their families once the men were
home from war. There was three main venereal diseases – bubonic plague, yellow fever and
tuberculosis. Unfortunately tuberculosis was the main disease that affected families.
Tuberculosis (also known as TB) is a disease that “affects the lungs but may infect any other
organ of the body. TB can only be passed from person when someone with active TB of the
lungs cough, sings, laughs or sneezes.xiv” Unlike today, at the time when the soldiers came
home from war, the hygienic practices weren’t as vigilant as they are now, nor was the
medical technology so far advanced. Although, tuberculosis was a contagious disease Red
Cross centres were sent up to look after young children who contracted TB to help them
recover. One report of a young girl who recovered from TB is shown below:
“One tiny girl of five, pathetically weak and debilitated after months in
hospital, weighed only two stone five pounds when she went to ‘Shuna,’ and
could not stand for weakness. A fat rosy little mortal who has put on twelve
pounds in weight returned to her delighted parents after a stay of thirteen
weeks in the Home.xv”
Photo 3 (above) summary:
Emaciated human figures, representing various diseases,
cower beneath a partially nude female figure, representing
venereal disease, chained to a vulture.
Photo 4 (Left) Summary: A
tubercular soldier rests at the
Bedford Park Sanatorium, after his
return to Australia. C. 1919.
Photograph courtesy of the State
Library of South Australia, SLSA,
B49003.
I think it is fairly safe to say that the women and children suffered just as much as the men
did when the soldier’s returned home. Life in the 1920s would have not been an easy one
for man or woman. After researching and learning more about life after the soldiers
returned home, I can fully understand how the Great Depression would have had the
chance to flourish, but that is an entirely different story altogether.
Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009)
Secondary Sources:
Anders, C. J, ‘From “Irritable Heart” to “Shellshock” How Post-Traumatic Stress Became a
Disease’ Secret History [webpage] (4th April 2012) <http://io9.com/5898560/from-irritable-
heart-to-shellshock-how-post-traumatic-stress-became-a-disease> para. 2, date accessed
30th September 2015.
Better Health Channel, ‘Tuberculosis TB’ Better Health Channel [webpage] (2015)
<http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Tuberculosis_(TB)> para.
1 date accessed 18th October
Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009)
The Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘What is PTSD?’ Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder [webpage] (2007) <http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html> para 1, date
accessed 29th September 2015.
World War I Propaganda Posters, ‘We’ve fought in the open – bubonic plague, yellow fever,
tuberculosis, World War I Propaganda Posters [webpage] (2011)
<http://www.ww1propaganda.com/ww1-poster/weve-fought-open-bubonic-plague-yellow-
fever-tuberculosis-now-venereal-diseases> photo, date accessed 1st September 2015.
Photograph References:
Photograph 1: Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South
Wales, 2009) p. 47
Photograph 2: Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South
Wales, 2009) p. 124
Photograph 3: World War I Propaganda Posters, ‘We’ve fought in the open – bubonic
plague, yellow fever, tuberculosis, World War I Propaganda Posters [webpage] (2011)
<http://www.ww1propaganda.com/ww1-poster/weve-fought-open-bubonic-plague-yellow-
fever-tuberculosis-now-venereal-diseases> photo, date accessed 1st September 2015.
Photograph 4: Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South
Wales, 2009) p. 181
i The Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘What is PTSD?’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [webpage] (2007) <http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html> para 1, date accessed 29th September 2015. ii Charlie Jane Anders, ‘From “Irritable Heart” to “Shellshock” How Post-Traumatic Stress Became a Disease’ Secret History [webpage] (4th April 2012) <http://io9.com/5898560/from-irritable-heart-to-shellshock-how-post-traumatic-stress-became-a-disease> para. 2, date accessed 30th September 2015. iii The Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘What is PTSD?’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [webpage] (2007) <http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html> para 1, date accessed 29th September 2015. iv The Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘What is PTSD?’ Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [webpage]
(2007) <http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html> para 2, date accessed 29th September 2015. v Archie Barwick In Great Spirits (Australia, Harper Collins Publishers, 2013) p. 91 viArchie Barwick In Great Spirits (Australia, Harper Collins Publishers, 2013) p. 218 vii Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 17
viii Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p.131 ix Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 133
x Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 134 xi Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 105 xii Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 107 xiiiDr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 83 xiv Better Health Channel, ‘Tuberculosis TB’ Better Health Channel [webpage] (2015) <http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Tuberculosis_(TB)> para. 1 date accessed
18th October xv Dr. Marina Larsson, Shattered ANZACs (Sydney, University of New South Wales, 2009) p. 199.