robertb Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 Marco, So much for "Quality of life"? Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 Lucky ones? Hard to tell, only they know i.m.h.o. I do think that lots of people tend to say that they wouldn’t want to live if they had …….. (fill in) but when it happens to them a lot seem to cling to life with the view that things could be worse. I know that years ago it was told on a tour of the citadel of Dinant that the large hospital opposite the citadel had a special section for mutilated Belgian soldiers who spend the rest of their lives out of sight. Regards, Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen White Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 Marco Just had a look at the photographs on the link you gave.Turned my stomach,awful.But i think we should look at them at least once in our lives,if for no other reason than to remind ourselves of man's inhumanity to man.The horrors of war can last long after the fighting is over. Steven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond7 Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 Talking with my mother - 84 - on this subject today. She recalls a number of men in the area who had eye patches and bad facial scarring. She said some men had purple marks on their necks and faces like birthmarks. She told me these men were part and parcel of the local community and their disfigurements were almost forgotten by their close associates. But she does remember tales being told like ghost stories by all the younger people in her street/area of men 'being shut away in special hospital wards because they would have frightened people with their terrible faces'. Sometimes she can give me little gems of social history if I have an old picture or a newspaper to spark the conversation but to be honest she is quite happy living in the present with a happy family around her. Which is nice .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIGEL Posted 4 April , 2004 Author Share Posted 4 April , 2004 And long she may Desmond--------my moms 75 havent seen her for years i should i know but she is a wealth of information as well i will ask her about this tonite i think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond7 Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 There must be loads of forum members who have mums, dads, grannies etc. who have useful memories of post-Great War related social experiences. Best wishes to all of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john w. Posted 4 April , 2004 Share Posted 4 April , 2004 Have had a look at the relevant site on Harold Gillies and the amazing work he did for those who were disfigured. The watercolours whilst graphic are no worse than those done at the time of the crimean war. The brutality of the wounds are there to see. It just makes Gillies work all the more fantastic. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottsGreys Posted 5 April , 2004 Share Posted 5 April , 2004 Chris The sculptor Derwent Wood (1871-1926) put his talents to use in making thin metal masks to cover disfigurements. There are a number of well known photos of him at work. Maybe this is the chap you are thinking of. Paul Paul: I believe you are right--I think that was his name. He was an artist, not an M.D. Extraordinary story. Thanks, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottsGreys Posted 5 April , 2004 Share Posted 5 April , 2004 Regarding the topic of wartime disfigurement, I hope Pals will forgive me a detour back to a different era, the American Civil War. Below are cartes de visite of Pte. James S. Stoddard, Co F, 14th New Hampshire Vols. and his wife, Martha A. Howe Stoddard. The unmarried Pte. Stoddard, a carpenter by trade, received two gunshot wounds at Cedar Creek, Va, one in the left arm which injured muscle and bone and rendered the arm only partially useful; the second struck the left side of his face, carrying away 2 teeth and a significant portion of the jaw and lodging in the tongue. (I won't describe further). The great point about this tale is that Martha Howe, who would have been considered attractive by the standards of her day and would not have been wanting for male admirers, chose to marry James Stoddard (deformed face and injured arm) April 5, 1866, roughly a year after the War. I have yet to uncover evidence whether or not they had an "understanding" when he went off to war or met after the War. Sadly, Martha died 12/11/66 of complications of childbirth the day after the birth of their daughter Mary. James Stoddard died March 30, 1872, of consumption (tuberculosis). James & Martha rest together in Millbury Cemetery, Massachusetts. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilB Posted 5 April , 2004 Share Posted 5 April , 2004 Having walked numerous WW1 battlefields, I was still impressed on USCW battlefields by the courage it must have taken to advance into grape or canister from artillery batteries, not to mention the accompanying heavy rifle bullets. I got the feeling that even a WW1 machine gun bullet would have been a lesser evil. Although WW1 artillery fire must have been dreadful, the troops seem to have been spared grape and canister. (Shrapnel would be a different animal) Phil B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIGEL Posted 5 April , 2004 Author Share Posted 5 April , 2004 they still had and even today antipersonel shells which explode in the air and shred everything below--------infact the idea has never been bettered as it can get you in a fox hole or trench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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