David Castleton - In the Minds Eye: The Blinded Veterans of St Dunstans.

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Book:
In the Minds Eye: The Blinded Veterans of St Dunstans.
Author:
David Castleton
Publisher:
Pen and Sword
Genre:
Books / Detective and thriller
Year:
2013
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If I were to look out west I would see a few lights flickering from Bideford like coloured stars on a cold night. A friend tells me I cant see them, but he is wrong, for in my mind I see things well. They blaze sometimes.

Colonel Sir Mike Ansell, (19061994),
President of St Dunstans (19771986).

First published in Great Britain by
PEN AND SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS

HARDBACK ISBN: 978 1 78159 347 9
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47383 111 7
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47382 995 4
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47383 053 0

The right of David Castleton to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying,
recording or by any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Printed and bound in England by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Typeset in Times by CHIC GRAPHICS

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of
Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime,
Pen & Sword Military, Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History,
Wharncliffe True Crime, Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select,
Pen & Sword Military Classics, Leo Cooper, Remember When,
The Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing

For a complete list of Pen and Sword titles please contact
Pen and Sword Books Limited
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail:
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

Contents

by Robert Leader

Foreword

I t is a great privilege for me, as Chief Executive of Blind Veterans UK (St Dunstans since 1915), to have been asked to write a foreword for David Castletons history of the formative years of this unique and very special organisation. It is the feeling, which both members and staff have, of being part of the family of Blind Veterans UK that is a major component of the life-changing difference that we are able to make for ex-service men and women who thought their loss of sight was the end of their useful lives.

This life-changing experience is encapsulated by a recurring theme I pick up from our members and it always goes something like this: I was lonely and afraid as I lost my sight. Suddenly, I couldnt do any of the things for myself that I had always taken for granted. I couldnt drive my car any more, I couldnt read a newspaper, I couldnt watch television, I couldnt deal with my own correspondence. I couldnt even get to the local shop on my own. I was effectively becoming a prisoner in my own home. Then Blind Veterans UK threw me a lifeline.

From the trenches of the Somme to the deserts of Afghanistan that lifeline has been making an extraordinary difference to the lives of blind ex-service men and women for almost a hundred years. This organisation has a great and glorious past, from its foundation by a blind man of vision, and it is for those of us who come after to carry the torch that he lit all those years ago, into a great and glorious future.

As the organisation goes forward, celebrating its past as St Dunstans and its future as Blind Veterans UK, I am confident that it will be a beacon in the darkness for more and more ex-service men and women, helping them to discover that there is a life beyond sight loss and that none of them has to battle their blindness alone.

David Castleton has been associated with this organisation for many years, both as a long-serving member of staff and now as a volunteer. I am hugely grateful to him for using his encyclopaedic knowledge and long experience to chronicle our remarkable story.

Robert Leader,
CEO of Blind Veterans UK, January 2013.

Prologue

T his book began as an account of the early years of St Dunstans from its foundation in 1915, but it soon became clear that behind the facts and figures, behind the politics, is a story of the contribution made by war-blinded men and women to an organisation founded by a blind man. This is not just the fact that, by their successful rehabilitation into the everyday life of this country, war-blinded St Dunstaners set an example to blind people and charities working for them. It is also the contribution made by many to the working of the organisation that had helped them.

Numerous St Dunstaners have taught others the skills they had learned. When the Second World War began, men blinded in the First World War returned to St Dunstans not only to teach, but also to inspire the next generation by their ability to overcome the handicap they shared. Others used their talents to help raise the funds needed to keep the work going, while a few headed specialist departments and contributed to the committees that directed St Dunstans work.

With the approval of the Charity Commission, St Dunstans has widened its work to include all ex-service people who have lost their sight through causes other than actual service in war. The organisation has embarked on this new task with greatly increasing numbers of blind ex-service men and women and a pressing need for funds to expand its facilities for training. With this in mind, in February 2012 a decision was taken, after much research, to change the name of the charity to Blind Veterans UK. This is to appeal, in both senses of the word, to younger generations for whom the title St Dunstans has failed to convey the nature of its work.

This is a good time to record those early days, and in doing so remind the sighted community of the existence of Blind Veterans UK and its continuing responsibility for the welfare of blind ex-service people. At the same time, apart from casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of war-blinded men and women has inevitably been decreasing since the Second World War. This account is a tribute to the courage and tenacity of ordinary men and women in overcoming the trauma of blindness in two world wars and the example they have set for all those who lose their sight in war or peace.

David Castleton, 2013.

Chapter 1

Pearsons Vision

I will never be a blind man, I will be the blind man!

(Sir Arthur Pearson, 1913)

T ommy Milligan, a young assistant pastry cook, lived in Roundhill Street, just off the Albert Bridge Road in Belfast. Like many of his contemporaries Tommy looked to the British Army as a means of opportunity and on 28 May 1914 he celebrated his eighteenth birthday by enlisting in the Irish Guards. Within three months the First World War was declared and soon Tommy was serving in France with his regiment. During action at La Bassee in December 1914, Tommy was wounded and totally blinded. His short military career ended, he was among a convoy of injured men sailing from France to Cardiff.

A Cardiff newspaper reported the presence of a blind man among the casualties. Although, as the war ground on some 2,000 young men would lose their sight, in those early months a blinded soldier was news. That article was fortunate for young Tommy, as it brought a number of volunteers to the military hospital with offers of help. Among them was the daughter of a wealthy Cardiff shipbroker, a 17-year-old girl whose own sight was in danger and who had been taught Braille in consequence. The medical officer arranged for her to give Tommy Milligan some preliminary Braille lessons, and these gave Tommy his first hope that he might be able to tackle the handicap of blindness. More than this, through her father, she brought Tommy into contact with the man who would show him how that handicap could be overcome.

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