On This Day, 14 August 1918

Birmingham Mail

Wednesday 14 August 1918

DISABLED SOLDIERS

WHAT IS BEING DONE IN BIRMINGHAM

FAR-REACHING SCHEME

Instead of being strictly limited, as one would imagine, the occupations open to the discharged soldier are bewildering in their number and variety. The great object of all training, however, is to find work most suitable to the particular case, and, as was urged at a recent meeting in Birmingham of the West Midlands Disablement Committee, there must be every care to avoid square pegs going into round holes.

Birmingham is in many respects a favourable centre for training, because of the varied industries at its doors and of its accessibility also to the land. It has been stated that the great difficulty is to find something to do for those whose disablement makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them able ever to hope to earn their own livelihood.

Alderman James, as chairman of the Training Committee of the West Midlands Disablement Committee has now had considerable experience in placing men. He has seen the effect of the training, and can support his conclusions with actual results.

His experience tells him that those who cannot be found useful and remunerative work are few indeed. Failures are very rare. So varied are the useful callings in which disabled soldiers are becoming proficient that it would be almost easier to mention what they are not doing than to describe what they are accomplishing.

The Ministry of Munitions is putting men through a rapid course to enable them to assist in the making of munitions of war. Six weeks suffices to place them in a workshop, where some of them are almost immediately able to earn £5 or £6 a week.

A remarkable case it cited of an Aston man shot through the brain. This man would suddenly collapse in an attempt to cross the roadway. His was not a hopeful case, but he went through a course of training at Aston Technical School. Concentration on his work had a wonderfully improving effect upon his health, bodily and mentally, and he is now a foreman in an important Birmingham factory earning something the region of £6 or £7 a week.

MACHINES TO SUIT DISABLED SOLDIERS

For a time difficulty was experienced in finding suitable work for one-armed men. Men even with no legs were more easily accommodated. However, ingenuity came to the aid of the manufacturer, and machines were devised especially for one-armed men by which what was previously accomplished by the hand it now equally well done with the foot.

For those who may suffer from leg injuries there is boot and shoe-making, tailoring, leather- work, etc. From making purses and wallets some have been transferred to Army work, such as saddles end leggings. Electrical engineering offers a capital field for the discharged man, and excellent work is being done in connection with this scheme at the Birmingham Technical School in Ludgate Hill. Men trained in woodwork are rendering valuable assistance to their country in making parts of aeroplanes, and what they have learned will of permanent use.

Others have been trained in motor tractor work and as motor drivers with a complete knowledge of the mechanism of the cars. Also from the ranks of the discharged soldiers are being provided cinema operators and men for switch boards. Dental mechanics (now much needed), surgical boot and artificial limb makers are being equipped with the necessary knowledge.

There is also a scheme in connection with the School of Art for training jewellers, silversmiths, and watch and clock makers.

Those who are precluded from manual work are being trained as draughtsmen and as experts in office work, with a knowledge of shorthand, typewriting, book-keeping, and commercial correspondence.

Then there is work which some are capable of performing on the land, notably in fruit-growing districts, while there is a scheme for others to engage in the health-giving work of reafforestation, suitable for those who by the nature of their physical disablement it may be deemed inadvisable to employ in connection with the provision of food for the people.