WAR AMPUTEES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26996, 3 February 1949, Page 6

WAR AMPUTEES

UNUSUAL BEGINNING FORMATION OF ASSOCIATION The ninth annual Dominion conference of the New Zealand War Amputees’ Association is to be held in the Council Chambers on February 9, 10 and 11, and approximately 34 delegates, many accompanied by their wives, will visit Dunedin. The conference will be officially opened at 9.30 a.m. on February 9 by the Mayor, Sir Donald Cameron. The War Amputees’ Association was formed in Oatlands Park Military Hospital, England, in 1917. Oatlands Park at that time was almost exclusively a New Zealand war amputees’ hospital. The association is almost unique in that its foundation members were soldiers still- on active service, although physically they were no longer effective as sueh. One of its early sponsors was the late Major-general Sir George Richardson, at that time general officer commanding New Zealand troops in England, and he acknowledged, in giving his consent to the. formation of the organisation within the Ist NZEF that as an organised body the amputees could do a great deal of preparatory work towards the problem of. their settling into civilian life. f;

Owing to the early “ lights out ” regulations in the hospital, the meetings were held during the day under a large cedar tree, in the grounds of the hospital, which was formerly known as Oatlands Park Palace, at one time a royal palace during the reign of Elizabeth and the Stuart Kings. The first president of the Amputees’ Association was Mr J-Cas-sidy, of Auckland, and he was followed by Mr J. A. Lee. One of their first requests to the army authorities was for equipment and instructors to commence trade training. Withm a remarkably short time the. necessary instructors, tutors, text books, machinery and tools were housed in army huts within the hospital grounds, and so began the first New Zealand trade training scheme in the rehabilitation of war disabled. Finance was largely provided by the New Zealand War Contingent Association, the authority at that time administering New Zealand’s patriotic funds in England. Every amputee, during his convalescence, was expected either to study or work in one of the schools or workshops. Special privileges were available to trainees, such as the wearing of uniform instead of hospital “blues,” and the possession of a pass entitling the bearer to leave until 11 o’clock each night. These induced the men to study or work. The control of the scheme,_ while officially army, was really carried out by the War Amputees’ Committee, which early made its views known to the Government in New Zealand on such matters as war pensions, artificial limb service and supply in the Dominion, and the rehabilitation of the returning tvar wounded. Later, contact was made with the New Zealand RSA, that body then being in the process of formation, and it was agreed that the War Amputees’ Association would be accepted as a branch of the New Zealand RSA in England. Plans were laid for the formation of a New Zealand organisation of war amputees, with branches in each main centre, after the termination qt the war. This did not eventuate immediately owing largely to the manner in which the members became scattered on their return to civilian life.

Committees were, however, set up in each of the main centres, and were known as sub-committees of the Returned Soldiers’ Association. Of these committees, Otago is the only one that has functioned as a healthy and vigorous body over the years since the Great War. In 1937, a revival of interest took place, and in each centre properly constituted associations were formed. In 1938 a'Do minion executive was set up in Wellington. It is significant that in the 1914-18 war the number of war amputee casualties in the Ist NZEF was approximately 1200. In the 1939-45 war, fought for a longer period, with a greater nuipber on active service, there were fewer than 500. This was due, not only to a different type of war. but also to the major advances in medical and surgical skill and the treatment of wounds. Matters which will be of primary importance in the coming conference include pensions, which are considered by the association to be tctally inadequate, and the question of concessions in transport facilities—a major problem in the life of every amputee