The Impact of the War on Returned Soldiers and Civilians
War creates tremendous impacts on all aspects of a soldier’s
life, through both physical and mental means. In this sense the soldier acts as
a centre-hold to a very large and complex branch of social manifestations.
Activity 1: Group Discussion (Expansion on ideas)
Using your existing knowledge of the First World War discuss the implications of returning back to a civilized structured life.
Activity 2: Source Analysis
Using the Secondary source below and your initial thoughts from the discussion, create a piece of writing that reflects your new found understanding on the implications of soldiers returning from war.
“In June 1922, Mrs. K Dare of North Sydney wrote to the treasurer of the Citizens’ Returned Soldier Benefit Fund administered by the City of Sydney. Mrs. Dare’s Husband had been ‘a fine healthy man’ prior to enlistment, but had returned from the war a broken up wreck and was now ill& weak at the Parramatta Asylum’. He had contracted bronchitis at the Dardanelles and had been ‘in & out of different homes’ and was most recently an inmate of the Waley Home at Picton , a Red Cross convalescent home for shell- shocked men. He was granted a pension of less than 50 per cent for his ‘lung and nerve troubles’, and the family, included two children faced a perilous future on a meager war pension of 14/6 a week. Given the regular hospitalization of her husband and his continues ill health, Mrs. Dare was left with the responsibility of preventing her family’s decent into destitution. The family lived together in one rented room, and she had ‘been obliged to pawn everything I have to keep things together’, sacrificing even the blankets on her own bed. Mrs. Dare lived with constant anxiety about the decline in her husband’s health and his possible death, stating ‘I really do not think my husband will see the Winter through.’”
Larsson, M (2009); Shattered ANZACs: Living with the scars of war Retrieved from http://www.eblib.com
In your answers, refer to issues such as:
Activity 1: Group Discussion (Expansion on ideas)
Using your existing knowledge of the First World War discuss the implications of returning back to a civilized structured life.
Activity 2: Source Analysis
Using the Secondary source below and your initial thoughts from the discussion, create a piece of writing that reflects your new found understanding on the implications of soldiers returning from war.
“In June 1922, Mrs. K Dare of North Sydney wrote to the treasurer of the Citizens’ Returned Soldier Benefit Fund administered by the City of Sydney. Mrs. Dare’s Husband had been ‘a fine healthy man’ prior to enlistment, but had returned from the war a broken up wreck and was now ill& weak at the Parramatta Asylum’. He had contracted bronchitis at the Dardanelles and had been ‘in & out of different homes’ and was most recently an inmate of the Waley Home at Picton , a Red Cross convalescent home for shell- shocked men. He was granted a pension of less than 50 per cent for his ‘lung and nerve troubles’, and the family, included two children faced a perilous future on a meager war pension of 14/6 a week. Given the regular hospitalization of her husband and his continues ill health, Mrs. Dare was left with the responsibility of preventing her family’s decent into destitution. The family lived together in one rented room, and she had ‘been obliged to pawn everything I have to keep things together’, sacrificing even the blankets on her own bed. Mrs. Dare lived with constant anxiety about the decline in her husband’s health and his possible death, stating ‘I really do not think my husband will see the Winter through.’”
Larsson, M (2009); Shattered ANZACs: Living with the scars of war Retrieved from http://www.eblib.com
In your answers, refer to issues such as:
- Physical and Mental injures sustained
- Duration
of time away from family or society
- Conditions of living during warfare
- Were there any possible benefits from returning
in such conditions?