Dear Member of The Blues and Royals Association,
The following is an extract of the foreword "Across the wire", which is the result of dedicated research by the Centre for Mental Health. The document is attached for your information and you may find it an interesting and poignant piece of work with issues that may have affected a large number that have served in the Armed Forces:
In theory we have been at peace since 1945, but only in 1968 has a serviceman or woman not been killed in action somewhere in the world during that period. The majority have been members of the regular forces, but their numbers also include members of the reserves, rightly categorised by the term ‘twice a citizen’.
Sadly, we also see and hear of young men and women who have suffered terrible disablement, following injuries from which their parents and grandparents would not have survived. These are the outward and visible reminders of the debt that the nation owes to those who literally put their lives on the line on its behalf.
However there are, equally sadly, a large number whose service results in medical conditions that are not so obvious. Throughout history the plight of veterans who find it difficult to return to normal life has been both visible and all-too often ignored. Many young people broke away from chaotic and dysfunctional lifestyles to join the armed forces, which could be accused of providing an entirely false form of existence, in which servicemen are looked after from morning until night, but then discharged, unprepared for the daily demands of civilian life. They do not want to go back to chaos, where those around them, who have not shared their experience, do not understand the nuances of what they are going through. Drink, anxiety and depression
lead too many into the hands of the criminal justice system.
Some face the additional problems of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), again nothing new, but society has changed since the days following World War I, when the British Legion established clubs in which veterans, whose families and friends did not understand what they had been through, could share experiences with comrades in arms, in other words practising, unwittingly, what is now called counselling or talking therapy. The nation
owes a debt to them all, a debt that has been inadequately honoured for too long.
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PF Stretton
I think it is time that the RBL took down the the wooden posts in the [THEY DIED AT DAWN ]site and replaced them with a new monument .as after all all they had was [Post Traumatic Stress Dissorder]
ReplyDelete"When the British Legion established clubs in which veterans, whose families and friends did not understand what they had been through, could share experiences with comrades in arms, in other words practising, unwittingly, what is now called counselling or talking therapy."
ReplyDeleteSadly, there are very few clubs left now and if the Legion goes ahead with the planned 33.3% increase in membership fees then this could result in even less members helping with the poppy appeal next year. In the current economic climate, pensioners on the minimum state pension simply can't afford 'any' increases - so don't shoot the Poppy Appeal Collector, who gives far more by way of valuable time than could be collected in increased fees!
Yes JIm was one of those he went into the army at fifteen having survived the bombing of Coventry at eighteen months old , and then spent the rest of his life either in the army or working for them. He never ever adjusted truely to civilian life, and he use to feel physically ill every time the siren on the camp at LTC went off , because that meant bombs were coming over . Even though he knew they weren't, it was his mind telling him they were it was kind of an in built memory. My grandad was the same after the first world war, but he never talked about it but when my mum died I found a little badge in her things that said the Birmingham 1914-18 club so he obviously went and talked to his friends about it. But5 as an onlooker, I have always noticed that as son as jim and all his friends goty tyo gether it was a case of do you remeber and although you went through tough times to gether the friends you made last for ever, time slips away when you meet, you are all those young men who did those silly tricks and jokes together. But yes we should always temember what we owe to our armed Forces. I also lived in Richmond near the Star and Garter Home, and in the summer all the soldiers use to be sitting out side, because I was so little I didn't realise that they were Ist & 2nd world war soldiers until I was in my Teens. But They madee a lasting impression on me.
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