Alan Allport's website

Thursday, 30th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Former war correspondent James Lansdale Hodson writes in his diary: "A man badly disfigured from war injuries and who had gone through nine months of plastic surgery returned to work. A deputation from other workmen asked that he be dismissed as his presence was too trying. The controller said: 'I have seldom been so angry. I said what I thought.' He ignored the demand."

Tuesday, 7th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the German surrender, the Minister of Labour addressed a meeting at the Guildhall yesterday to report on the progress in resettling ex-servicemen and -women in civilian employment during the twelve months of peace in Europe, reports the Times. Mr. Isaacs had much to be pleased about; up to the end of March about 2,700,000 persons had been released from HM Forces, and it was expected that another 1.25 million would be out of uniform by the end of 1946. Isaacs spoke at some length about the special problems of disabled ex-servicemen. About 400,000 persons were listed on the official Ministry of Labour disabled register, and of those only 53,000 were still unemployed, 44,000 of whom were assumed to be able to compete in the insustrial labour market under ordinary terms.

Also in the Times: plans for the 8th June Victory Parade in London are in progress. More than 14,000 men will line the roads and direct traffic, including several thousands serving troops, RAF Police, and many reserve retired policemen who have volunteered for special duty.

Saturday, 23rd February, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

John Bull reports on the temporary 'pre-fab' housing offered in lieu of a permanent home for reunited couples:

Mrs. Mark has had a fearful time. A flying bomb destroyed her home in June 1944. Her husband was in the Navy then. She had a twelve-year-old daughter, Jean. With a badly cut hand a shattered nerves she and the girl found themselves rushed into a hostile Somerset cottage. Constantly the hostess reminded them that 'if my husband were alive he would never have allowed you in.'

Mr. Mark was discharged from the Navy on medical grounds resulting from arthritis in the feet, the result of being torpedoed while on convoy duty to Russia. He also had high blood pressure, and is a pretty sick man.

Back in London after VE-Day, Mrs. Mark and Jean were living in a school rest centre. Mr. Mark has to have a place without stairs as he cannot walk easily. After innumerable calls on the local housing authorities, they finally moved into a three-bedroom Nissen hut and have made it into a cosy little home for themselves.

Mr. Mark is apprehensive about the future. The prefabs and the Nissens are, after all, only a temporary expedient. Ten years for the prefabs. Two years for the Nissens. They like their present home. Jean, now fourteen years old, burst into tears when her father told her that the Nissens would eventually have to be torn down to make way for proper houses. "I don't want to live in a proper house," she wept. "I like living here ..."

 

Monday, 26th November, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

The Daily Mirror reports on a concern amongst military psychologists that an "alarming number" of men in uniform are feigning mental distress in order to obtain an early discharge from the Forces, deceiving their unwitting unit doctors. Wing Commander Kenneth Bergin has suggested that threats of disciplinary action have produced a suspicious number of miraculous 'cures' amongst patients claiming to suffer from headaches, dizziness, bad memory, and other vague symptoms. "Almost without exception they deteriorate steadily until in desperation they are invalided out," he writes acerbically:

But what transformation between the time they are told they will be invalided and the date of their actual discharge - the lame leap for joy, the blind see, and dyspeptics eat large indigestible meals with no apparent discomfort.

 

Previous patients had my sympathetic attention, but now I refer more and more cases to the executive for disciplinary action with the most surprising and gratifying results.

Others are less cynical, however. Dr. John McCluskie insists that "the majority of men and women discharged from the services for neurosis are still under treatment." He warns that suspicious service MOs are treading on dangerous ground. Not all serious - even suicidal - patients initially exhibit obvious symptoms. "It may be some years before the sufferer joins the ranks of those poor wretches who blow their brains out in the Army or reach the overcrowded mental hospitals."

Thursday, 16th August, 1945

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Despite the worldwide celebrations that greeted yesterday's news of the Japanese surrender, sporadic fighting continues throughout the Far East, reports the Times. Isolated pockets of Japanese troops, out of communication with their headquarters, continue to skirmish desultorily with Allied soldiers in Burma; Spitfires dropping leaflets with news of the surrender were met with anti-aircraft fire over Moulmein. The Red Army's offensive in Manchuria continues apace.

Government schemes for the resettlement of disabled ex-servicemen are yielding too high a proportion of failures, according to a survey published yesterday by the policy think tank Political and Economic Planning, says the News Chronicle. The Ministry of Labour's Disablement Rehabilitation Officers are singled out for particular criticism by PEP; "the wrong type of people" are being appointed to the job. The survey recommends abolishing the Ministry of Pensions and transfering its responsibilities to the Ministries of National Health and National Insurance [this didn't happen until 1968].