On Tuesday 11th November, the High School community came together at our War Memorial to honour, and remember, those who gave their lives so we could live ours.

Wreaths were placed at the War Memorial by Chair of Governors, Steve Banks, Head Boy Sasmeet and Head Girl Emily, CCF representative Harry and David Nettleton (ON 1974-1984) on behalf of the ON community.

The Last Post was played by Year 12 student David.

Claire Daly, Head of History, gave an address about the number of those who lost their lives in the war and the impact the war continued to have on those who survived.

“The industrial scale and widespread use of shelling, machine guns and poison gas during the First World War had a massive impact on Europe. The dead numbered 9.5 million – on average, over 5,000 people a day died between 1914 and 1918. Indeed, from this school out of an estimated 1,018 Old Boys and six Chaplains who served in the Great War, 227 were killed. Which is the equivalent of all bar 14 members of the current Year 12 and Year 13 lost to the conflict.

Not only did this have a significant impact on our school community, but Britain as a whole was affected. Over the course of the war, 880,000 British forces died, representing 6% of the adult male population. The military casualties incurred by Britain during the First World War, dwarfs anything that has occurred since. 19,240 British men were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on the 1st of July 1916. Three time more than have been killed in every combat operation since the end of World War Two.

Yet, for many Great War veterans, the impact of the war continued long after the guns fell silent. What was life like for the 791 Old Boys who returned to Britain after their traumatic experiences on the Western Front? Far exceeding the 880,000 British men killed in the First World War, are the two million men who returned home with some level of permanent disability. Over 40,000 had survived the amputation of one or more limbs, whilst others suffered from less visible injuries; deafness from prolonged exposure to shell fire, lung damage from gas attacks, tuberculosis contracted in the trenches, and the effects of 'shell shock', better known today as post-traumatic stress disorder.  

Much of the study of disability in this period has focussed on the medical aspects of treatment and rehabilitation, but what was the wider impact on life in Britain? For the thousands of men who re-entered civilian life with disabilities as a result of war – mainly young with most of their lives ahead of them – what was their future? 

The government, burdened with war debts, was keen to avoid solutions that constituted a financial burden on the state. Thus, the emphasis was on encouraging former soldiers to live independently. The government therefore only provided war pensions based on the level of impairment. To qualify for the full pension, required the loss of two or more limbs, loss of sight or severe facial disfigurement. By 1929, 1.6 million men had been awarded war pensions.

Following the Armistice in 1918, there was widespread social disruption and strikes as disgruntled ex-servicemen became politicised as never before. In the years immediately following the War, the disabled were not allowed to take part in the Armistice ceremonies. The Luton Peace Day Riots of July 1919, were the worst manifestation of discontent over the bank holiday to celebrate the end of World War One. During the riots, Luton Town Hall was burned down in response to the council’s decision to hold a celebratory dinner that was so expensive that none of the ex-soldiers could afford to go. Ex-soldiers also demonstrated for better state provision for disabled men, put forward disabled candidates in by-elections, boycotted peace demonstrations and were under constant police surveillance. Some of the most active campaigners were men like Major Sir Benn Jack Brunel Cohen, wounded at the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, he had both legs amputated and went on to gain the parliamentary seat of Liverpool Fairfield in 1918 to promote the needs of disabled veterans. Similarly, Ian Fraser, who was blinded during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, became an MP for St Pancras North in 1924 and in 1934 received a knighthood in recognition for his work with St Dunstan’s, now Blind Veterans UK. Two years later he was appointed a Governor of the newly created BBC, continuing his advocacy for disabled veterans.

Nowadays, we understand and recognise the importance of looking after our mental health. The School’s mental health leads in Year 13 and the Wellbeing Centre are testament to this. However, this was not the case in Britain both during and after the war. The huge number of shell shock cases was completely unexpected – by the end of the war, over 80,000 cases of shell shock had passed through British Army medical facilities and about 25% of men who were discharged from active service during the war were labelled ‘psychiatric casualties.’ However, there was much stigma associated with this diagnosis. Soldiers suffering from shell shock were labelled as ‘insane’ and were sent to ‘lunatic asylums.’ ‘Lunatic asylums’ were popularly known as pauper lunatic asylums because they were traditionally populated by those unable to afford private care. In an attempt to prevent the Great War veterans who suffered mental health problems from being tainted with the stigma of pauper lunacy, the Ministry of Pensions funded the ‘Service Patient’ scheme throughout British asylums from the summer of 1917. The scheme enabled ex-servicemen to be dressed in their own clothing, receive a small weekly allowance of pocket money, and be buried outside the asylum walls (and spared a pauper’s grave) if a man died while under treatment. However, from the outset of the Service Patient scheme, the Ministry of Pensions rejected institutions whose upkeep of private patients was deemed to be too expensive. Therefore, it is doubtful whether those treated in Britain’s asylums managed to avoid the twin stigmas of insanity and poverty.

In spite of this problematic approach, the First World War was the first time that the psychological trauma of warfare was formally recognised by both doctors and society at large. The scale of shell shock and the inadequate treatment of these veterans was an important step towards both changing attitudes towards mental health and repealing Britain’s outdated legislation. The 1930 Mental Treatment Act officially changed the way in which mental health was discussed, replacing the more harmful terminology of “asylum” and “lunatic”, with “mental hospital” and “patients”. However, it was not until 1959 that the 1890 Lunacy Act was repealed and solidified the emphasis on mental health rather than lunacy. Thus, it is evident how the legacy of the First World War extends far beyond the 4 years of conflict in Europe and the 9.5 million dead. Those who survived, paved the way for important societal and medical changes that resonate to this day.”