Wounded in a mentionable place: the (in)visibility of the disable ex-servicaman in interwar Britain

One of the visible legacies of the First World War in British society were the ex-servicemen who returned from the war with war-attributable injuries and impairments. Yet, as numerous historians have demonstrated, the reality of the lived experience of post-war war disability became increasingly hidden after the, often through marginalisation by the very organisations claiming to give such men a political voice. In reaction, some of these men and their carers turned to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Pensions to give voice to their particular experience of ex-service identity.

This chapter explores the complex relationship between disabled ex-servicemen and the State in the period between 1919 and 1939 in shaping disabled ex-servicemen’s social visibility. Drawing on letters from disabled ex-servicemen and their carers to the Ministry of Pensions, it interrogates the ways in which post-war disability was constructed and represented by individuals and institutions. In doing so, it argues that ex-servicemen were much more visible occupants of social and domestic spaces than is generally acknowledged. By exploring the variety of these men’s experiences in relation to the State, we can expand our understanding of the visible legacies of the First World War in Britain.