Hospital magazines: sharing wounded soldiers' stories and social issues in Post World War One Britain. - HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Pré-publication, Document de travail Année : 2022

Hospital magazines: sharing wounded soldiers' stories and social issues in Post World War One Britain.

Résumé

Hospital magazines were common during and after WW1, reporting stories about patients and medical personnel who were also contributors providing both articles and illustrations. The magazines proved to be instrumental for wounded soldiers to find a new voice in society by addressing an audience of readers who might buy copies at the hospital or in some local shops. Ward Muir edited such a gazette that grossed £5000 per month for charity funds at the Third London General Hospital. Among the drawings published in the gazette, Muir called attention to J. H. Dowd's drawings as pieces of memory testifying to the long-term impact of the war even when it was over: “What in this instance renders them (Dowd’s drawings) so valuable is their intrinsic veracity…They genuinely happened and are happening at this moment, for, though peace has come, it will be long before the great war hospitals empty and the boys in blue are no longer among us in town and country.” Dowd had been a patient in this hospital and worked for three months as a caregiver along with Harry Hemsley, a well-known actor, singer and radio star who had served during the war. These magazines provide illuminative insight into the lives of soldiers recovering from war wounds. They allow the contemporary reader to better understand the state of mind of these soldiers and the different thoughts they experienced during their convalescence. The magazines helped in the recovery of wounded veterans by giving them a voice albeit unspoken and indirect to express their feelings. In many instances the magazines and illustrations highlighted the juxtaposition of both the resilience and desperation that many veterans felt. Whether or not these testimonies influenced the personnel dealing with the collective trauma and the civilian population at large remains a subject difficult to quantify. Nevertheless the fact that the public purchased the magazines provides a basis to assume that a deeper and more sensitive perception of the feelings of wounded veterans permeated the mentality of other members of society. Based on these magazines, the writer will study the difficulties that wounded veterans of the First World War in Great Britain faced to readjust to society and its prevailing concept of masculinity. This work will first explore the concept of masculinity present during the post war period and the consequent repercussions of such a notion in the minds of war wounded veterans. Subsequently, the relations between these wounded veterans and women will be analyzed. Then, the writer will discuss the consequences of distinguishing a war wounded veteran through a specific uniform. The curiosity that these wounded men brought to the public's eye will then be examined. Finally, the case of men suffering from shell-shock and the reaction this unforeseen disorder triggered in society will be studied.
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Dates et versions

hal-04244281, version 1 (16-10-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04244281 , version 1

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Sophie Sibson. Hospital magazines: sharing wounded soldiers' stories and social issues in Post World War One Britain.. 2022. ⟨hal-04244281⟩
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Dernière date de mise à jour le 28/04/2024
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