‘Fit only for Light Work’: Disabled Ex-servicemen and the Struggle for a Domestic Masculinity

Abstract

Despite the immense loss of life suffered by the British armed forces during four years of total war, the majority of servicemen survived the war, although many bore its scars upon their bodies and minds in the form of wounds, amputations and psychological disorders.1 By 1929, 1,600,000 men had been awarded a pension or gratuity by the British government for disabilities incurred during the war.2 Of these 71,433 were diagnosed with a psychological disorder either attributable to or aggravated by the war, 495,545 were in receipt of an artificial limb, mobility aid or other surgical appliance, and 1,331,486 had received institutional treatment for their disability.3 While reintegration into postwar society was a struggle for all ex-servicemen,4 the disabled faced particular hurdles as their experiences of disability often directly challenged the expectations of the masculine roles they had anticipated inhabiting upon their return to civilian life. Among the disabled, those with psychological disabilities faced particular struggles due to the contested nature of their disability.