Sad Soldiers.

By: Emma Doughan

Question: Issues facing returned service men in the region.

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.