The dead, the wounded and the crippled.

[PhilB]

The statistics section of the Long, Long Trail shows that nearly a million British servicemen died in WW1, over 2 million were wounded and 182,000 were discharged as invalids. Can anyone advise what compensation rates were paid to those wounded or mutilated or to the families of those who died? Did these rates vary according to rank? Phil B

[Malcolm]

m13pgb.

If you mean pensions the following may give you an idea.

Published 1938 - in ' I Was There '

The War's Bill to Humanity, by C.A.Lyon

Do you know that there are still nearly one million people suffering directly

from the war!

One Briton in fifty is still a war victim.

Here are some thought provoking figures:

442,000 men are still living so maimed , gassed, nerve-racked,or otherwise ruined in health

that they can not work or can only work wth diminished efficiency, and are partly or wholly dependent on the State for money to live.

127,000 widows still mourn men they last saw in khakisome day in the years 1914 and 1918.

224,000 parents and other dependents are still suffering through the loss of sons or relatives who were their

breadwinners, and have to be helped by the State.

Only detailed figures can give an idea of the suffering that the Great War is still causing today in this twentieth year of the peace.

Below are given estimated figures from the Ministry of Pensions.

They do not include the thousands of less seriously injured who conceal their wounds as best they can and make no claim.

As for the thousands of seriously injured, they are seldom seen on the streets.

There are 6,000 men with one or both legs amputated and 3000 with one or both arms amputated, a total of nearly 12,000

men who have lost limbs.

There are 90,000 men with impaired arms and legs not serious enough for, or curable by amputation.

There are 15,000 head injuries many of whom have to wear a metal plate to

protect them.

11,000 are deaf, 7,000 suffer from hernia, 2,200 suffer from the effects of frost-bite.

32,009 suffer from wounds not officially classed. These are the wounded!

100,000 men are afflicted with diseases too numerous to mention.

41,000 suffer from chest complaints brought on by gassing.

30,000 suffer from heart disease brought on by strain or carrying heavy loads.

28,000 suffer rheumatism severe enough to convince the not-too-easily persuaded Ministry of Pensions doctors.

25,000 suffer nervous disorders (shell shock)

2,800 are epileptic and 3,200 are in asyloms their minds broken.

A great army of doctors, nurses, masseurs, artificial limb makers, ocu;ists and hospital staffs

still work to make life more tolerable for the worst war wounded.

There are 14,000 men with un-healed wounds who still have to have medical tratment.

One man celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the end of the war by having his hand amputated as the result of a wound

which had given him pain all these years.

2,000 men are still in-patients in special war victims hospitals and 1,200 out-patients. doubtless there are more in General hospitals.

Each year thousands of pounds worth of apparatus and service are still needed.

Men come back to hospital year after year to have a little more cut off an amputated limb.

Each year 24,000 new surgical appliances, 4,000 new artificial arms and legs, 3,800 new artificial eyes,

25,000 bacteriological or pathological tests are still needed.

To pay pensions costs £40,000,000 per year or £110,000 per week. One shilling in every pound (1/20th) is

used to keep the war victims.

The eventual cost is estimated at £2,000,000,000. Now this £2bn - which no one grudges and most would like to

see increased - really represents payments to the war victims of wages for work which they or their dead breadwinners

would have done had they not been killed or incapacitated.

The £2bn ' wages 'will be paid but the work will never be done - and we are all poorer as a result.

(The article ends ) Yet men talk and dream and plan a still greater war. Truly there is no limit to human folly.

Aye

Malcolm

[PhilB]

Thanks, Malcolm. Fortunately, suffering on that scale is just too big for us to fully comprehend. Phil B

[Desmond7]

I do not say this lightly - but that was one of the best, clear cut, informative pieces of information EVER.

Des - and it's cut and pasted for future reference!

Thanks for the question and big hand for the reply!

[Malcolm]

Des,

Not mine - C A Lyon in ' I Was There ' part 51 but one I keep as a reminder of the ones who came home never to be the same again.

It wasn't till I was about 25 before I found that my Uncle was in fact my Mother's cousin whose Father died in the War and whose Mother went to pieces. He was brought up by my Gran and Grandad as one of their own. How many families did that in the 1920s, lots I imagine without ' carers ' benefits too. Family was important to the survivors of 14-18.

Aye

Malcolm

[shelley]

Des, Do you know how much a widow with two children would have received weekly? Cheers Shelley

[FRICOURT]

Shelley, according to a booklet I have on Soldiers' Pensions 1918 she would receive the following :-

widow of a private - 13/9 (69p)

first child under 16 - 6/8 (33p)

second child - 5/- (25p)

A grand total of £1.27pence in today's money.

Charlie

[FRICOURT]

Incidentally my grandad got 24/9 (£1.24p) for the loss of his arm at the shoulder joint and 19/3 (96p) for total deafness. £2.20 per week.

He went on to have 9 children and died at 60.

Charlie

[shelley]

Charlie, Thank you for the info, no wonder my Great Grandmother came to Canada ! She worked her way across the country doing laundry, repairing shoes. She remarried a widower from Lancashire, and had quite a few more children. cheers Shelley

[PhilB]

Charlie:- That means it`s £1-4s-9d pw for loss of arm, 19s-3d for loss of hearing but only 13s-9d for loss of husband. Makes you think! Phil B

[Guest Rob2347]

My grandfather was wounded on two separate occasions and required hospitalisation over a period of many years. During this time he was offered a lump sum of money (amount unknown) or a war pension. He took the pension and died in 1980 aged 85yrs. Several months before his death he had stated that he felt that his war pension should not die with him, but be passed on to his heirs (only in a perfect world granddad), having lost his two brothers to the war and sadly the love of his parents who had stated that they had wished that he had been killed (in their grief) and not his older brothers.

He lived to be an old man and out lived his own son who died aged 44yrs. What a burden he carried to his grave for a war pension.

Rob.

[FRICOURT]

Phil, the "reason" for the widow getting less was because it was felt that she might remarry and regain some sort of income.

charlie

[PhilB]

Fair point, Charlie - not much chance of growing a new arm! Still a bit hard on the women though, putting pressure on them to find an income source, or live in penury? Phil B