“The man is stupid”: newly-opened files reveal shocking treatment of Scottish veterans after First World War
By Google News Personal Finance ·
Over 25,000 case files from military pensions appeal tribunals for First World War veterans in Scotland are now online on ScotlandsPeople, the records website for the National Records of Scotland (NRS).
The tribunals were set up in 1919 to allow injured servicemen or their families applying for pensions to appeal against rejections.
However, over 70% of applicants to the Scottish tribunals were unsuccessful, as they were required to meet strict criteria to prove that a medical condition had been directly caused or made worse by wartime service. The Scottish Labour MP Manny Shinwell described the tribunals as “graveyards of the hopes of many ex-service men”.
The pension appeal tribunal records from England and Wales have not survived, so the Scottish records are a rare and valuable resource.
NRS said it held 30,000 case files altogether, and would continue to add more each January when they pass 100 years from the date of the hearing.
ScotlandsPeople users can view digital copies of the case files in exchange for 20 user credits. Credits cost 25p each.
Any records of First World War soldiers are particularly valuable as approximately 60% of First World War service records were destroyed when the War Office Record Office was bombed during the Blitz in 1940.
The files paint a detailed, and often shocking, picture of the lives of First World War veterans.
The file for David Renfrew, for example, says that his appeal hearing was held on 10 November 1921 and he was 34 years old. He was a miner before the war and served as a private in the Scottish Rifles. He joined the army on 16 September 1915 and was discharged on 28 January 1919.
The file contains a statement signed by D. McLean, a doctor in the village of Tarbrax, South Lanarkshire, where Renfrew was currently…
Originally published by Google News Personal Finance
