Wounded
“The Long Journey Home from The Great War”
By
Emily Mayhew
Was on the 25th January 2018 in The Kincaid Gallery at The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum.
“Being wounded was one of the most common experiences of the Great War; on the Western Front almost every other British soldier could expect to become a casualty with injuries ranging from light wounds to permanent life changing disability”.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 medical staff had the experience of the 1899-1902 South African War to call on, but discovered that the trench warfare that set in after the first months of conflict required a reassessment of their approach and new thinking about a new war and new wounds. There were huge advances in the treatment of those wounded on the battlefields and many changes that today are accepted, standard practice, in particular providing treatment and life saving surgery as close to the battle front as possible. The medical staff were perhaps more successful than the military commanders in adapting rapidly to the challenge.
Emily Mayhew is a Research Associate at Imperial College London and an Examiner at the Imperial college Medical School; she is also a lecturer to various museums including the Wellcome Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the Royal College of Surgeons. Her second book, ‘Wounded’, was shortlisted for the 2014 Wellcome Trust Book Prize. Her talk traces a soldier’s journey from injury on the battlefield to recover in Britain, documenting how modifications during the Great War forever changed how medical care is provided to the front line.
Sourced from YouTube (Credited to William Wright)