Tracing the Continuities of Entitlement: Lancashire’s Response to Mental Illness and the Disabled Ex-Servicemen of the First World War

This article examines the influence of a deeply embedded hierarchy of disability, underpinned by Poor Law classifications of the deserving and undeserving poor, on the welfare provisions and experiences of returning disabled ex-servicemen with mental illness. Through a regional case study of the treatment and experiences of First World War disabled ex-servicemen with psychiatric injuries at Moss Side Military Hospital, Maghull, and the Prestwich County Asylum, Lancashire, it contends that the existing pre-war classification of persons with mental illness as undeserving shaped the experiences of and treatments provided to these people. In doing so, this work argues that although the conflicts of the First World War reflect a temporary shift in the broader discussion around mental illness, these changes were measured and transient. Moreover, this work posits that the British State’s response to psychiatric injuries and suggestions from an emerging field of psychiatry can be seen as ‘appearing to be doing just enough’ and offering a momentary façade to pacify the public while enforcing limited, lasting developments to pre-war Poor Law policies of mental health.