Shell Shocked Britain: the mental health legacy of WW1

Karen Clare delves into a fascinating new book exploring the impact of shell shock on our First World War relatives – and the legacy of a nation traumatised by conflict.

In recent weeks, as the spectacle that was the Tower Hill poppies captured the hearts and minds of millions, thoughts turned to acts of remembrance and the sombre 100^th anniversary of the start of World War I. As family historians we are more used to tracing the dead than the living and the Great War centenary has provided a focus for many researchers, and the catalyst for others to learn about the lives of relatives lost in the conflict.

But what about those combatants who survived and returned home, traumatised by their experiences? What happened to them, how did the authorities respond and their families cope?

This hidden history has been revealed by writer Suzie Grogan in her fascinating new book, Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War’s Legacy for Britain’s Mental Health (Pen & Sword History, 2014). The book was inspired by a violent incident that Suzie discovered while researching her own family history, in which her grandmother witnessed her brother attack and kill his ex-girlfriend before committing suicide. This horrific event happened in 1922 but was, perhaps understandably, hushed up by the family. However, a pattern of anxiety and depression has run down the generations, a possible legacy of the ‘air raid shock’ her great-uncle had suffered - and the lasting impact of his final, tragic, actions.

Some 80,000 men had been diagnosed with shell shock, or ‘war neurosis’, by the end of the war, better known nowadays as post-traumatic or combat stress, but millions more may have suffered in silence. The term shell shock was coined, we learn, by Charles Myers, a professor of anthropology who was sent to France in 1915 ‘to support the men suffering from this mysterious condition’. But, reveals the author, it’s now recognised that men have suffered from ‘mind wounds’ caused by conflict throughout human history; from the ancient Greeks to the Napoleonic Wars and American Civil War.

In Shell Shocked Britain, Suzie has used extensive archival research to provide a thought-provoking new insight into the war trauma experienced by so many of our ancestors, which cast a dark shadow over the past century. With many of our modern soldiers returning from active service suffering from combat stress, it is still relevant today.

You can follow Suzie Grogan on twitter @shellshockedGB and @keatsbabe and find her website at www.suziegrogan.co.uk.