Queen Square Archive and Museum,
UCL Institute of Neurology and the National
Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (UCLH)
presents its latest exhibition
This exhibition highlights the treatment of war-related psychogenic disorders at the
National Hospital, as well as the wider impact of the War on the Hospital’s work and
staff.
Items on display in the exhibition have been selected from the extensive collection of
case notes held in the Archive, as well as photographs and literature from and about
the period.
The exhibition is being held in Queen Square Library, 1st Floor, 23 Queen Square until
November 2014.
Treatment of war-related psychogenic disorders at the National
From the beginning of the War until the end of 1919, over 1,200 sailors and soldiers were admitted to the
National.
In 1915-1919, nearly half of all male admissions at the National were servicemen, and over 30% of patients in
total were military cases. The most common contemporaneous diagnoses were functional disorder, hysteria,
neurasthenia, neurosis and shell shock.
Unlike before and after the War, there were twice as many male as female patients admitted to the National,
and twice as many males as females treated for the above conditions.
Over 200 cases were treated by the neurologist Dr Lewis Yealland, who featured in Pat Barker's novel
Regeneration. Yealland was amongst the first doctors in Britain to incorporate electricity in the systematic
treatment of shell shock.
As the 1916 Registrar’s report shows there were a relatively large number of functional diseases – including
25 diagnosed as “shell shock”. Wards for wounded sailors and soldiers opened. Number of beds doubled from
34 to 68. 33% of accommodation was for military cases. An Annexe with 30 beds was converted for sailors
and soldiers in 1917.
Rehabilitation beyond Queen Square
In 1918, the National Hospital undertook management of Lonsdale House, Home for Discharged Sailors and
Soldiers, and Bray Court Hospital for Neurasthenic Discharged Sailors and Soldiers, at request of the Ministry
of Pensions. These facilities could accommodate over 150 patients between them.
“ at Lonsdale House, where the men are
paralysed and mostly confined to bed, their
chief occupations have been basketmaking, embroidery and netting,
by which means the patients have been, in
many cases, able to supplement their
pensions and make further provision for
their families.”
National Hospital Annual Report, 1919
“At Bray Court, the patients are of an entirely different description, being those suffering from shell-shock and
neurasthenia. Those of the patients who are under occupational treatment are employed in gardening, poultry
and pig keeping, carpentry, fitting etc… during the year a large gymnasium has been equipped and opened.”
National Hospital Annual Report, 1919
Bray Court was under the management of the National Hospital until April 1920, rehabilitating over 100 men.
The wider impact of the War on the National
As the Annual Report for 1914 details, the war affected the work of the
Hospital in ways beyond the treatment of soldiers – in terms of finance,
due to subscribers withdrawing or withholding annual support combined
with an increase in the cost of food and drugs
There were also staffing shortages, due to members of
staff being called away for service in the Forces.
It also indirectly led to an increase in female medical
staff, including the appointment of the first female
registrar, Dr Majorie Blandy
Image: Hospital Annual report 1918
Image: Soldier Surgeons in Boulogne 1915
Unfortunately, many staff did not return from the War, including
Sir Victor Horsley in 1916 who died following field surgery duty in
Mesopotamia.
As the 1920 Annual Report details, the Hospital in
Queen Square is gradually reverting to its pre-War
services and resources. Wards for sailors and soldiers
closed early 1919, receiving a letter of thanks from the
War Office.
The Report also describes the Zeppelin air raid of 1915,
which is described in detail in the cabinet on display.
Photographs:
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Two patients in the Hospital April 1915. Ref: QSA/14038
Basket-making at Lonsdale House. Ref: QSA/15492
Women’s Hospital Corps Doctors, 1914-15 (Credit: LSE Library collections, reference number
7LGA/6/01)
Sir Victor Horsley in uniform. Ref: QSA/14049
Soldier Surgeons in Boulogne. Sir Geo Makins, Gordon Holmes, Wallace & Percy Sargent. Ref:
QSA/2006
Lewis Yealland graduation photo, with kind permission of Dr Susan Yealland.
Hospital on September 8th 1915 after Zeppelin raid. Ref: QSA/15429
Objects
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National Hospital 1914 Annual report - first page. Ref: QSA/15448
Report of the registrar for 1916. Ref: QSA/15481 & QSA/15484
National Hospital 1916 Annual report – first page - Christmas on the ward. Ref: QSA/15491
National Hospital Board of Management Minutes 1916 detailing news of Sir Victor Horsley’s death.
Air raid warning notice. From National Hospital Board minutes 1917. Ref: QSA/19049
Voluntary rationing sheet. From National Hospital Board minutes 1917
National Hospital 1918 Annual report - first page. Ref: QSA/15452
Donations page from the National Hospital 1918 Annual report. Ref: QSA/15490
Cabinet containing evidence of bomb damage in Queen Square from a Zeppelin raid in September
1915. Includes a note describing the event, photos, part of garden railing and fragment of the bomb.
Ref: QSA/15424
Selection of original case notes – see separate handout for further details of examples.
Literature and art
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Regeneration by Pat Barker
Poems : Aftermath ,and Survivors, by Siegfried Sassoon; Mental Cases by Wilfred Owen
Paintings by Paul Nash, Henry Tonks, William Orpen and Edmund Dulac.
Yealland obituary. Lancet vol. 263(6811), p. 577-8, 1954.
See also asterisked items in reading list below
Further reading
 *Hysterical disorders of warfare / Lewis R. Yealland with a preface by E. Farquhar Buzzard
London : Macmillan, 1918
 *Instinct and the unconscious : a contribution to a biological theory of the psycho-neuroses / W.H.R.
Rivers. Cambridge University Press, 1920
 *Shell-shock and other neuropsychiatric problems presented in five hundred and eighty-nine case
histories from the war literature, 1914-1918 / E. E. Southard ; with a bibliography by Norman Fenton
and an introduction by Charles K. Mills. Boston : W. M. Leonard, 1919
 *Shell shock and its lessons / G. Elliot Smith and T.H. Pear
Manchester : University Press ; London : Longman, Green 2d ed. 1917
 Shell shock at Queen Square: Lewis Yealland 100 years on. Linden SC, Jones E, Lees AJ. Brain. 2013
Jun;136(Pt 6):1976-88.
 The Strange Second Death of Lewis Yealland / Dennis Duffy, Ontario History, CIII (2), Autumn 2011.
 A war of nerves / Ben Shephard. London : Jonathan Cape 2000