Compassion in Conflict (Shell Shock) - Moss Side Hospital

Side 1-The War Poet Wilfrid Owen/In 1915, Owen enlisted in the army and/after experiencing heavy fighting, he was diagnosed with shell shock./It was while being treated at home, he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon/who became a friend and an inspiration. He returned to the front in August 1918/and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in October./On 4th November 1918, Owen was killed while attempting to lead his men/across the Sambre canal at Ors, just a week before the armistice. One of his most famous poems 'Dulce et Decorum Est' or 'The Old Lie' reflected on/his experiences watching a soldier choke to death after being gassed. The final three lines/compares the reality of the soldiers fate with the enthusiasm many had on the eve of war./'Dulce et Decorum Est'/If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace/Behind the wagon that we flung him in,/And watch the white eyes wreathing in his face,/His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,/If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,/Obscene as cancer, bitter as the curd/Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues-/My friend, you would not tell with such high cost/To children ardent for some desperate glory,/The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori /[Latin phrase '"It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country"] Side 2-The War Poet Siegfried Sassoon/Sassoon enlisted in 1914 drawn by the patriotic mood of the time/but after suffering the horrors of the trenches and the front line/he made this statement, culminating in his admission/to a military psychiatric hospital for treatment for shell shock/A Soldier's Declaration (1917)/I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority,/because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have/the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of all soldiers./I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purpose/for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon the war should have been so clearly stated/as to have made it impossible to change them, and that had this been done, the objects, which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured/the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends/which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war,/but against political errors and inaccuracies for which the fighting men are being sacrificed/On behalf of all those who are suffering I make this protest against the description which/is being practiced on them, also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacency/with which the majority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies, which they do not,/and which they have not sufficient imagination to realise. Side 3-The memorial was unveiled by/Dr John Rowlands, a great friend of Maghull/7th December 2018/It was created and made possible by the collective efforts/of the following individuals and organisations/Maghull Town Council/Cllr Patrick McKinley, leader/Cllr John Sayers, deputy leader/Cllr June Burns, ex Mayor/Angela McIntyre, Town Clerk/Moss Side volunteers/Ross Ferguson, Emma Harrison/Stuart Harrison, Dr John Rowlands, Dr Frank Sharp/Maghull Schools, Amanda Bennett of MADCOS/Alex Waring of St John Bosco School/Merseytravel, Merseyrail and Network Rail/WW1 consultants Diane and Rob Wantling/Sculptor Andrew Edwards/Castle Fine Arts Foundry/All we are saying "is give peace a chance", John Lennon Side 4-Compassion in Conflict/Dedicated to all those who have suffered/and those who continue to suffer/from the effects of what was called 'shellshock'/and the dedicated medical staff of Moss Side Hospital/who pioneered the treatment of the condition//Prior to the treatment of shellshock,/many soldiers were 'shot at dawn' by their own side,/who accused them of cowardice when many of them were ill/In 2006, all 306 soldiers of the First World War/who were shot at dawn for cowardice or desertion/were granted posthumous pardons by the Ministry of Defence/This memorial stands in the grounds of what was Moss Side Hospital./The hospital is gone but the results of conflict continue to blight lives Side 5-Shot at Dawm/Jimmy Smith of the Liverpool Pals/Having survived the slaughter of Gallopoli/and being wounded during the Battle of the Somme,/Private 52929 Jimmy Smith returned to the front as member of the/17th Battalion of the King's Regiment (The Liverpool Pals)//He had almost lost his life on the Somme in 1916./A massive German artillery shell buried him alive on the Transloy ridge,/leaving bits of his friends around him, and a large deep shrapnel wound/on his right shoulder. According to his sister, it was big enough to put a fist in./Fortunately, he was rescued, but in a very poor mental and physical state/from which he never recovered. The shocks and horrors of the battles that he had seen/had damaged him to such an extent that he was clearly unfit foe further service./Jimmy was scared inside and outside by what he had seen and suffering/from terrible shell shock, he started to go absent without leave./Today we would recognise that Jimmy Smith/was suffering from serious post-traumatic stress disorder.//During late August and early September 1917, The Liverpool Pals had endured/some of the most vicious fighting of World War 1. Predictably perhaps, Jimmy escaped again./He would have known very well, that if he was caught, he might well face/the death sentence, but nothing could make him go into battle again./Just before midnight on the evening of 30th July 1917, he was arrested in the town of Poperinge./He was charged with desertion and disobedience, and on 22nd August, he faced court martial. Side 6-During the trial, Jimmy did not say a word./Disgracefully, he was not even given someone to act in his defence/The three presiding officers found him guilty. Men from Jimmy's regiment/were selected on the firing squad, most of whom knew he was a brave man/who was suffering from shell shock. He had been awarded two good conduct medals./Jimmy was still only 26 years old./His execution was due to take place at dawn on 5th September.//That morning, the reluctant executioners found him bound to a chair/sat up next to the wall of a barn. Private Smith was blindfolded and a white disc/had been placed over his heart as a target. Protesting furiously to the commanding officer,/the twelve man firing squad was summarily ordered to execute Jimmy./The lads aimed and fired, the majority deliberately missing the target. However,/Jimmy was wounded, the chair was knocked over and he lay screaming with pain on the ground./The young officer in charge of the firing squad was shaking like a leaf, but he knew now/that he had to finish Jimmy off by putting a bullet through his brain with his Webley pistol./He lost his nerve however, and could not fire as Jimmy continued to writhe in agony on the ground./The officer ordered one of Jimmy's friends to take the final shot and kill him.//The friend, a private from Everton never recovered from the trauma./Seven decades later, as he faced his own death, still desperately upset, he told his son what had happened. He never forgave himself./Today, Jimmy lies in Kemmel Cheshire Military Cemetery. His gravestone bears the inscription/'Gone, but not forgotten'/This memorial pays respect to Jimmy and the other 305 soldiers of the First World War/who were shot for cowardice or desertion Side 7-Those employed to treat and assist in the recovery of the patients/and to look after the day to day running of the hospital,/were doctors, nurses, assistant steward, assistant clerks,/stores porter, general porters, stokers, electricians,/farm labourers, upholsterers, cooks, kitchen maids, seamstresses,/serving maids, cleaners, watchman and laundry maids//During WW1 the female members of staff at the hospital/took on many of the roles and responsibilities previously held/by male staff who had enlisted into the Armed Forces./The patients themselves were allowed to work on the land/as part of their therapy and the progress of the work/was regularly reported to Parliament/The patients known as "The Boys in Blue", because of /their distinctive blue uniforms, were a part of Maghull for almost 20 years./Eventually, the Military Red Cross Hospital, Moss Side, closed and by 1930/it was handed back to the Board of Control as Moss Side State Institution/It remained open as one of the four Special Hospitals of England/until its closure on 9th December 1995. Side 8-Moss Side Hospital/1914-1995/On this site stood Military Red Cross Hospital,/Moss Side, the pioneering establishment/in the recognition and treatment of 'Shell Shock'/better known today as 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder'//The first soldiers from the WW1 conflict/were admitted for treatment on 7th December 1914.// By the Spring of 1918 Moss Side housed almost 500 patients/and between 1914 and 1919 the hospital treated a total of 3,638 patients.//The hospital held pioneering courses for Royal Army Medical Corps doctors/in the management of shell shock. The commissioning of the new hospital/was the task of Mr Charles Cockram, who as clerk and steward/appointed staff of many capabilities during the five weeks before/the hospital's opening in December 1914.