Repair: The ‘Prematurely Aged’ and ‘Burnt Out’ veteran debate, 1929-1939

This talk will analyse how and why British and Australian welfare policy and medical infrastructures for disabled First World War veterans went in opposite directions during the Great Depression (1929-1939). Despite interacting with the same clientele of citizens who fought together in many of the same battles, Australian veteran after-care experienced incremental ‘welfare creep’ with loosening eligibility criteria and the introduction of eligibility criteria enabling veterans described as ‘Burnt Out Diggers’ claiming to be suffering from latent war-related disabilities to receive state-funded financial and medical welfare. This expansion in eligibility ensured a subsequent expansion in welfare and medical provisions regarding war disability pensions, hospitals, out-patient clinics, administrative offices and employees. Australian veterans’ cancer diagnoses and breathing, heart and mental health problems arising later in life were officially recognized, treated and compensated as attributable to the after-effects of war service. Yet, similarly afflicted British veterans were not medically or legally classified as disabled or ill due to Britain’s stricter national eligibility requirements. This contrast in national trajectories exemplifies how welfare categories and medical diagnoses are not objectively measured. Instead, they remain highly fluid and contestable and are shaped by wider a nation's wider socio-cultural, political and economic context.

Presenter Dr Michael Robinson is a Leverhulme Trust-funded Early Career Researcher based at the University of Liverpool's History department. His book, Shell-Shocked British Army Veterans in Ireland, 1918-39: A Difficult Homecoming, was published as part of Manchester University Press' 'Disability History' series in 2020 (hardback) and 2022 (paperback). He has published cognate research on First World War veterans in Social History of Medicine, War in History, Irish Studies Review and History Ireland. His time at the HRC will be spent working on his Anglo-Australian comparative research project entitled: Repair and Reimbursement: the ‘Prematurely Aged’ and ‘Burnt Out’ veteran debate, 1929-1939.