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THE WORLD REMEMBERS — LE MONDE SE SOUVIENT
1918
BATTLE SCARS
Propaganda posters for WW1 implied that real men go to war. Men as young as sixteen
rushed to enlist fearing the war would end before they had a chance to date a French
girl. Europe seemed an exotic destination for these untraveled young Canadians.
The families and girlfriends were filled with fear and pride as they watched the men
parade in their military uniforms. Train stations were crowded with service men
receiving hugs from loved ones. Their destination was Val Cartier in Quebec where
after brief training the army boys boarded the expeditionary ships for England and
France. As they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean these young Canadians told ribald
stories, shared liquor flasks and exaggerated their prowess. None suspected they were
entering the bloodiest and most brutal of wars.
With a sense of adventure and loyalty to the mother country more than half a million
Canadians from towns and cities across Canada enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary
Forces. Over the next four years more than 60,000 died as a result of direct enemy action
and another 138,000 suffered physical wounds. And though it is difficult to diagnose
psychological casualties, authorities estimated 9,000 suffered from “shell shock.”
This was the consequence for the many thousands of men who left able-bodied and without a care in the world as they
came back scarred with physical and emotional handicaps.
Amputations were among the most obvious physical casualties and 3,461 men and one woman had had one limb
amputated. Amputees were often plagued with the pain of phantom limb. Prosthetic limbs were not the high tech models
used by Oscar Pistorius. Early devices were made of wood, leather and metal. Wartime amputation was crude leaving
scar tissue that often broke down. Veterans sometimes preferred to scramble around on their stumps rather than suffer
the pain of an ill-fitting artificial leg.
Many of the young soldiers had not finished school and some could not even read. Uneducated and physically
compromised they were unable to do either physical labour or deskwork. Unions disgruntled with the government
organized crippled veterans to join their protests. Physically scarred and emotionally damaged, facing a bleak future
and feeling abandoned by society, many turned to alcohol and morphine. Brothels were often the source of both drugs.
Records of the pioneering plastic surgery performed by Dr/ Harold Gillies on WWI soldier
William M. Spreckley
Photo from Imperial War Museum.
As the war raged in Europe, a disease spread through
the Canadian forces that should have been foreseen
and should have been addressed. In the entire course
of the war 15 percent of our soldiers were diagnosed
with venereal disease (VD) now called sexually
transmitted disease (STD). Once home servicemen
passed it on to wives and girlfriends. There was no
social media to address the public health problem.
Information on prevention, diagnosis and treatment
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THE WORLD REMEMBERS — LE MONDE SE SOUVIENT
1918
of SDTs was conveyed through graphic posters in public
places.
How did this happen? Why did so many soldiers contract
an STD? In the context of war prostitution was not judged
harshly. It was a fact of military life. There were military
approved brothels and freelance houses where many of
the women were never inspected for STDs. During the
occasional respite from battle soldiers went off to the towns
Sculptors and artists designed lifelike masks for gravely wounded soldiers.
near the Western Front and some of them sought out a brothel.
Unfortunately many of the ladies were infected with venereal disease. Barmaids, laundresses, working girls, widows,
and wives became wartime prostitutes augmenting their inadequate incomes to put food on the table. These women were
more desperate than evil. In the words of one young soldier: “It was the prostitutes who kept me human after killing so
many men.”
Prostitution and VD were not, however, a phenomenon that emerged during WW1 but it was the circumstances of war
that exacerbated the problem. Lethbridge, a mining and farming community in southern Alberta with a large population
of men is a case in point. The city had a previous history of what was locally called the sporting culture of drinking,
gambling and illicit sex. Prostitution had been tolerated because of the abundance of amorous bachelors working in
the mines. Lethbridge had the highest per capita enlistment in Canada. It also had the highest incidence of venereal
disease. The fighting men returned to their hometown expecting a hero’s welcome. But what they faced from a citizenry
knowledgeable of the ravages of VD was social discrimination – they had become spreaders of disease. Before going
to war the city’s cocky young men might well have thought of marriage and raising a family with a pretty young girl.
The public outcry of sexually transmitted disease made the women of
Lethbridge wary of soldiers.
A pandemic of flu following on the heels of the war killed 50 million
people worldwide. Fifty thousand Canadians, most of them healthy
young adults, died of the “Spanish Flu”. Normal social outlets for
courting such as movie theatres were closed and kissing was banned.
Brothels became a viable venue for social engagement.
And during prohibition brothels were the only place to get a drink so
they became social hubs. Feeling ostracized soldiers sought out ladies
of ill repute who didn’t recoil from their deformities. The inducement
of a drink was all that was needed for the men to talk about their war
experience. Three dollars was a small price to pay to restore manliness.
Considering there was much public awareness in Lethbridge about
prostitutes and the risk of disease it is surprising that the homegrown
soldiers had not protected themselves. But Canadian authorities refused
to distribute condoms to our troops so that by 1916 our men had a six
times greater rate of VD than the British troops. During the period of the
Photo from Imperial War Museum.
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THE WORLD REMEMBERS — LE MONDE SE SOUVIENT
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war 66,083 Canadian cases of venereal disease were reported. In
an attempt to curtail the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases
soldiers of the CEF forfeited 50 cents per day of their pay plus their
field allowances while being treated in hospital.
Canada faced a post-war near epidemic of VD. In Ontario the medical
officer of health set up travelling exhibits in a train car that stopped
at railway stations around the province. Graphic posters highlighted
the ravages of tuberculosis, smallpox and venereal disease. Medical
authorities were treating VD as a
public health issue and not as a
moral disgrace.
Alberta responded by establishing the first VD clinic in the province. This delicate
task was entrusted to my British grandmother, an experienced nurse who had worked
throughout the war with a Canadian surgeon, Colonel Francis Mewburn, at a Red Cross
Hospital near London. There was no battle wound she had not seen including venereal
disease. After losing her husband in a German gas attack and her young son in the
pandemic of flu she decided to move with her five-year-old daughter to Lethbridge to
become the matron or lady superintendent of the Galt Hospital. Colonel Mewburn had
recommended her for the job. Like the Colonel, she was known for her no nonsense
attitude and enormous wit. These attributes undoubtedly contributed to her success.
Three years after my grandmother’s arrival in Lethbridge public health authorities
reported a marked decrease in the number of new cases of Venereal Disease.
SHARON JOHNSTON
Sharon Johnston, wife of His Excellency David Johnston Governor General of Canada and the author of the recently
published book Matrons And Madams based on her grandmother’s experience as a nurse in western Canada in the 1920’s.
Photo from Imperial War Museum.