Veteran’s Voices: Storthes Hall and the Long Shadow of Shell-Shock

Online presentation by Dr. Alice Brumby.

Despite the interest in shell-shock and mental disability amongst servicemen, little is known about the plight of the mentally afflicted veteran after the armistice and into the interwar years. This talk rediscovers the voices and experiences of ex-servicemen institutionalised within the Ministry of Pensions Hospital at Kirkburton (Storthes Hall), during the interwar years. By focussing upon the written letters of the patients, this talk will present some of the diverse responses of patients to their hospitalisation. Medical men came to regard these patients as incurable cases, rather than as mentally ill ex-servicemen who deserved any special treatment.

Dr Alice Brumby is a lecturer in Modern History at York St John University. Her research interests focus upon nineteenth and twentieth century mental health care and patient welfare in England. With a PhD from the University of Huddersfield, she has published work on Storthes Hall, Huddersfield War Hospital, and the charity Rethink Mental Illness. A fuller report of her research on Storthes Hall is available online:

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19475020.2015.1047891

Due to current social distancing restrictions, Huddersfield Local History Society’s 2020/21 season of talks will initially be given online and made available on the Society’s web site.