BBC World Histories - 08.2019 - 09.2019

51

GETTY IMAGES Æ

material culture. A correspondent for the London-based period-

ical The Hospital commended them thus: “A lectern – and also a

tray with carved border completed during the week – was made

by Private G Pell, who is blinded, and had had no experience of

carpentry till he went to St Dunstan’s. A meat-safe with zinc

panels was made by Lance-Corporal Hopper, who is not only

blind but has lost the first finger of the right hand, and thumb

and first finger of left hand.”

In October 1919 – four months after that fateful day at Ver-

sailles – the third of the now annual series of conferences was

held in central Rome in the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, an exhibi-

tion area in Via Nazionale. Delegates came from nations around

the world, including Canada, France, the UK, Japan and the US.

In Rome, the veterans themselves made important points

about the international nature of the problems with which they

were confronted. Among their number was Aurelio Nicolodi, a

native of Trento, who was blinded by a shell-burst while fighting

for the Italians at the second battle of the Isonzo in July 1915.

At the end of 1916, Nicolodi entered a rehabilitation centre for

blinded servicemen in Florence; a year later he became the

director of that same institution. In Rome, he presented a paper

on the vocational training of the blinded for agricultural work.

But for Nicolodi, this was just the beginning: he would go on to

play a major role in the creation of Italy’s blind union, which

mobilised both war-blinded and blind civilians under the slo-

gan: “The solution of blindness’s problems concerns exclusively

blind people.”

As the Rome conference proved, international collaboration

and circulation of information about medical techniques,

rehabilitation methods, aftercare and pension systems evident

were considered vital in handling the transnational problem

of severely wounded servicemen. Medicine and science had

become increasingly internationalised since the 19th century,

largely because of growing opportunities for scientists to ex-

change ideas and disseminate research outputs through confer-

ences and publications.

Dramatic improvements in sanitation and hygiene, and

advances in medicine and technology, allowed a high propor-

tion of soldiers to survive their wounds and in many cases return

Waves of wounded

A British field dressing station on the Somme, France, 1916.

Combatant nations had to improve the speed at which they

treated casualties because of the unprecedented numbers

of soldiers injured over short periods during the conflict

Silent treatment

French soldiers with hearing damage

receive rehabilitation treatment, 1915.

Not all injuries sustained during the

First World War were visible

A First World War

veteran makes

a picture frame

at St Dunstan’s

Hostel, which

helped blind ex-

soldiers retrain

ИЗП

ОДГ

ОТО

ВИЛ

АГР

УП

GETTY IMAGES

П

GETTY IMAGES

П

GETTY IMAGES

П

GETTY IMAGES

А

GETTY IMAGES

А

GETTY IMAGES

"What's

News"

VK.COM/WSNWS