Description:This photograph shows soldiers at work in a pioneering programme at Highbury Hospital to improve the care of the wounded. During the First World War the modern concept and practice of medical rehabilitation began to evolve. Once soldiers had recovered from the severe shock of injuries or from treatment for septic wounds in different hospitals, they were finally referred to orthopaedic wards to correct disabilities or deformities, their spirit often crushed. They were then required to undergo a wearisome convalescence as part of a therapy programme of massage and 'electricity' and movement exercises, which left them bored and discontented.
Robert Jones, Major General Inspector for orthopaedics in military hospitals, determined to find the best means of alleviating this plight. His scheme was to introduce ‘curative workshops’ where as soon as their limbs were sufficiently recovered soldiers took up their former trade or employment, resumed using familiar tools and equipment, or alternatively threw themselves into a new occupation. The results were very positive: ‘Massage and exercise is no longer a mere routine: it all fits in and leads up to the idea of fitness to work and earn a living and serve the State in an economic sense, even if not to return to the regiment’.<small><sup>1</sup></small>
In his pre-war post at the University of Liverpool, Jones’ personal assistant had been Naughton Dunn, who in 1913 had come to Birmingham to take up the post of Honorary Surgeon for the Birmingham and District Cripples' Union at Woodlands (now the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital) with consulting rooms in Calthorpe Road. In 1915 Dunn enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps and barely survived Gallipoli where he contracted hepatitis and typhoid. After his recovery he was transferred by Jones to Birmingham as surgeon in charge of all military orthopaedic hospitals in the area.<small><sup>2</sup></small> From January 1918 until March 1920 when he was demobbed his main base was the 800 bed Highbury Hospital.
At Highbury, Hollymore and Uffculme Dunn proceeded with the work of rehabilitating the wounded through occupational therapy. In all these hospitals a wide range of healing facilities were installed and customised programmes were devised for all patients, even those immobilized in bed owing to gunshot or shrapnel fractures of the lower limbs. Some of their activities are recorded in photographs held in Birmingham Library's Archives and Heritage Service. They include men doing metal work in the orchid corridor; repairing shoes, carpentry, bed frame wiring, electrics and tailoring in the greenhouse; poultry and vegetable farming; and plasticine modelling (of a trench at the front). A further development at Hollymoor was to recruit an Education Officer to deliver a range of academic and vocational classes, including French, Spanish, commercial arithmetic, shorthand and book-keeping, the strategy being to ‘combine literary education and technical training with curative treatment, and avoidance of “ennui”’.<small><sup>3</sup></small>
<font color="#666633"><small><sup>1</sup> Robert Jones, 'Notes on Military Orthopaedics', (London: British Red Cross Society by Cassell and Company, 1917) Preface p.viii
<sup>2</sup> Peter M. Dunn, 'Naughton Dunn, Orthopaedic Surgeon His Life and Times, 1884-1939' http://www.naughtondunn.org/page1.htm
<sup>3</sup> 'History of Asylum War Hospitals in England and Wales, Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Marriott Cooke and C Hubert Bond', British Parliamentary Paper, (London: HMSO, 1920) Cmd.899 </small></font>