Ministry of Pensions Annual or equivalent reports available anywhere in full online?

[John Gilinsky]

Hello all.  I am very keenly interested in tracking down all Ministry of Pensions Annual Reports or equivalent from circa 1918 to probably 1960s.  Unfortunately the Parliamentary Archives requires that someone physically go to them.  My interest lies in tracking down a complete as possible list(s) of all M of Pensions hospitals and health care facilities for WW1 especially veterans AND researching such facilities via the 1921 and later British Censuses.  Does anyone know of ANY Annual Reports or equivalent that are available digitally online anywhere?  Naturally those reports from circa 1918 to say 1941 are of particular interest as the lists of such ministerially controlled institutions that embody the 1921 British Census (and possibly even Canadian / American censuses which are more available) are of great interest.

I do hope people can help.  I am working my way through (slowly of course!) the Canadian and American censuses extracting the war trauma related institutions.

John

Toronto, Canada

[MaureenE]

For a list of hospitals, the Long, Long Trail website has a page "Military hospitals in the British Isles 1914-1918" (which however is stated not to be complete)

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/military-hospitals-in-the-british-isles-1914-1918/

You could check whether the Ministry of Pensions Annual Reports are available on the library subscription website UK Parliamentary Papers,  from Proquest. Many Libraries provide this database for their readers, sometimes available on home computers. The Library  would need  to have subscribed for the 20th Century database. 

Maureen

[John Gilinsky]

Thanks Maureen.  My real intertest lies with the post-1918 period right up to say early 1940s(and beyond depending on how much time!) with discovering what happened to those diagnosed firstly during the conflict 1914 - 1919 and then diagnosed say from 1920to early 1940s and which especially Ministry of Pensions facilities held such shellshocked WW1 veterans.  In Canada while there were 2 military hospitals dedicated to "shellshock" several other military hospitals certainly had shellshock cases if not sections.  

[Matlock1418]

On 31/08/2023 at 00:43, John Gilinsky said:

I am very keenly interested in tracking down all Ministry of Pensions Annual Reports or equivalent from circa 1918 to probably 1960s.

I believe member @ss002d6252  might perhaps be able to provide some assistance as he has helped me greatly in the past, including quoting from a MoP Annual Report.

I too would be interested to learn if you manage to locate a readily accessible source of such documents.

M

[Derek Black]

An interesting project you’ve set for yourself. 
 

Other than locations of the institutions, would their reports hold any information relating to numbers of men being admitted, treated or having died each year?

 

Cheers,

Derek

[John Gilinsky]

Thanks Derek and Matlock.   I don't know exactly if any detailed particulars as to patient population stats are contained within the post-war MoP annual reports.  However the Canadian equivalent whilst starting out strong in the 1920s over time became more generalized.  Parliamentary(Great Britain) estimates, budgets, auditor-general reports with detailed accounts for MoP, etc....while typically NOT giving patient specifics are invaluable especially again in the 1920s and thereafter generalizing become too general (:)))).  This is the case for Canada for sure.  The national decennial censuses for Canada now are accessible 1921 and 1931.  The USA have 1920, 1930, 1940 and 1950 censuses open!  Sadly the 1931 British census was destroyed during the Blitz on London in 1942.  Using the censuses generally and I can only presume the 1921 British census one should be able to find out during the summer periods (when most censuses were undertaken) who (including staff, support workers, and especially patients) were actually in the institution when the enumerator called.  This is why I am keen on the 1921 British census AND matching or in fact accessing it through detailed MoP institutions and their precise location to find them enumerated in the 1921 census.

Tx again

John

[Matlock1418]

3 minutes ago, John Gilinsky said:

the 1931 British census was destroyed during the Blitz on London in 1942

The UK 1921 Census and 1939 Register are the nearest we seem to have given the loss of the 1931 and non-completion of the 1941 censuses.

M

Edited 9 October , 2023 by Matlock1418

[Derek Black]

The 1931 census for Scotland survives fortunately. 

[Matlock1418]

Just now, Derek Black said:

The 1931 census for Scotland survives fortunately. 

My apologies to those north of the border - I'm too used to looking at E&W 

[Note to self!]

M

[John Gilinsky]

Aye Derek laddie, aye! 

Thanks

Ivan Gilinsky

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search/census-returns#record-type

1921 found 

Census records though are closed for 100 years in Scotland per early 21st. century Scottish statute.

Compare that to the USA everything up to and including 1950 Census is OPEN and accessible via internet searches.

Scores of USA hospitals for me to locate, search and data analyze from 1920 at least to 1950 inclusively (ugh)

For Canada I am in much better position and the 2 main "shellshock" military hospitals have been found for both 1921 and 1931 Canadian censuses!

Will try searching Scotland but though the Min of Pensions includes Scotland unsure to what details giving full institutional title, FULL detailed address (typically resort to city directories to confirm, verify, etc...).

 

 

 

[Matlock1418]

Northern Ireland had a Census in April 1926 and reports are available to download. https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/1926-census-reports 

But I've never looked there so can't tell what is included.

Though I believe the detail has been lost [potentially during WW2], at least that seems more recent opinion.

And the Irish Census, covering the south, will be released in April 1926 by the Irish government.

M

Edited 9 October , 2023 by Matlock1418

[John Gilinsky]

Hi Matlock!

Sorry those Northern Ireland reports are published parliamentary papers on the separate counties of Northern Ireland at the time and are NOT the actual mss and/or printed census returns themselves - :(((.

However thanks for trying to hep.

John

[alf mcm]

John,

   Peter Barham’s book ‘Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War’ includes a list of Asylums in each county of England and Wales in 1922. Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War: Amazon.co.uk: Peter Barham: 9780300103793: Books  The numbers of ‘Service Patients’ in each asylum is shown. It may be possible to locate these asylums in the 1921 census. Peter’s book discusses how the ‘service patient’ scheme was meant to work and what actually happened. Patients are named throughout the book by forename and initial of surname. In the last chapter however, he gives full names of these patients, making it easier to find them in the 1921 census.

Regards,

Alf McM

[John Gilinsky]

Tx Alf.  I have a copy of this book but it is in "cold ice" (storage!).  The MoP must have run at least for a fair period of time its own mental health diagnosed ex-service people from WW1(presumably from circa 1917 to say the early 1930s(?) with the onset of the Great Depression inducing or even compelling significant budgetary cutbacks.  The MoP probably responded to criticisms that it was sending such veterans to asylums that there were no other places or that these other places besides asylums were even a worse solution.  Barham's book sometimes reads as a moralizing rant.  Ex-solders had been sent to asylums or the practical equivalent since the 1820's.  Every so often Parliamentarians would specifically raise questions about this practice with the usual official Parliamentary government line that a) the government was not doing this; b) only a very few such ex-soldiers were known;  c) done only in extreme situations.  All the while official military regulations in the 19th century regulated such practices!   My interest (remember I am in Canada) is in documenting in detail the medical and social histories of ALL the Canadian(CEF) members and ex-CEF members who ended up at anytime in their history being diagnosed with shellshock, combat fatigue, etc....  Thus Houses of Refuge, Prisons, Work Farms, General Hospitals, Military Hospitals and the like are all of interest with of course even in Canada the sheer numbers, medical confidentiality generally and by statutory prohibitions etc... means that I will focus on the primary institutional care institutions.  Ideally given unlimited time and money (::)))))! I would make every effort to do such a massive research effort.  No one should mistake that Barham's book deals with a certain number or percentage of post-war British official MoP handling of veterans.  There must have been a significant number of officially mentally diagnosed post-war veterans who never saw let alone entered such asylum walls.  These latter say war diagnosed vets may have post-war been in general hospitals, local hospitals or clinics, been seen by the first out-patient clinics which were established in British I think in the Manchester area by psychologists who had treated such "shellshock" cases during the war, prisons, re-enlisted under a false name(s),.....  Some attempted suicide or suicided (of course NOT all such were attributable to the war or their war related diagnosis), some remained perpetually unemployed or seriously underemployed, some immigrated to say Australia, South Africa or Canada and some (many?) more or less reasonably re-adjusted to post-war life though possibly still troubled or suffering medical ill-effects which they managed to manage or control usually.

 

[Matlock1418]

25 minutes ago, John Gilinsky said:

The MoP must have run at least for a fair period of time its own mental health diagnosed ex-service people from WW1

The MoP appears to have had its own hospitals, and these may have come from being former War Hospitals, in London at least. 

"Shell-Shock", "Neurasthenia", "Insanity" and "Asylum" certainly appear in their vocabulary.  Of course not all mental health conditions presented their way were always of direct attribution to service or to aggravation by it.

Compared to pension and allowance(s) paid for out-patient treatment being an in-patient had an effect on the pension and allowances(s) paid to a man [latterly, no full pension for man as he was being offered 'board & lodgings', though for wife and child(ren) payment would continue]

The institutions being provided for disabled men certainly offered a range of treatments and such institutions were coded according to the treatments being offered. 

Selectively a couple from an A-Z list [not sure of the date but it was a later and expanded list] in which most codes were alphabetically similar to the treatment(s) offered:

N = Neurasthenic, neurological, psycho-theraputic

Z = Mental Institutions

Our GWF member Craig, @ss002d6252, is much more knowledgeable on pensions/MoP etc. and I believe has more details and resources [I got this code info off lists provided by him some time ago!] - I hope he spots this 'tag'/'mention' and this thread and can help here.

M