Artwork by WWI soldiers found in trunk 100 years later

Published: 17 July 2024

By Ed Chatterton 
via the MSN website

WWI artwork

Soldiers expressed their feelings through creativity. (Nathan Fitzsimmons / Hansons via SWNS) (© Provided by talker)

Artwork penned by First World War soldiers as a method to cope with PTSD have been discovered in a locked trunk belonging to a 1917 nurse – 107 years on.

The fascinating album kept by nurse Jean Thomson sheds new light on the therapies used to help shell-shocked servicemen more than a century ago.

Jean was a nurse at Merryflats War Hospital in Govan, Glasgow, a poorhouse requisitioned as a military hospital in 1914.

She helped soldiers shattered by the 1914-18 Great War recover both mentally and physically and one of the ways she did so was through art and creativity.

Jean invited them to draw and write their thoughts in her album which was discovered in a locked trunk during a house clearance.

The 107-year-old album offers new insight into medical techniques to ease what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

It also sheds light on the character and sense of humor of the heroes sent into a war that cost the lives of around 40 million people, both military and civilian.

One tongue-in-cheek cartoon depicts a badly injured soldier telling a nurse: “I feel a lot better today” and her replying “and you’re looking much better too”.

The wartime album will now go under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers, in Etwall, Derbys., on July 23 where it is expected to fetch between $70-$100.

Artwork from a soldier during WWI. (Nathan Fitzsimmons / Hansons via SWNS)
(© Provided by talker)

The owner, retired civil servant Alison Jean Rutherford, of Nottingham, is Jean’s granddaughter and named after her.

She said: “I discovered the album while clearing out my mum’s house after her death in 2022, aged 93.

“My mum was Nancy, Jean’s only child, and she spent most of her life in Scotland though she moved south to St Albans for her later years to be near me.

“My mother never showed me this album, though she gave me several rolled bead necklaces and explained how they were made by the soldiers and often given to the nurses.

“I found the album in an old trunk full of family papers that I took from her house after she died. Luckily I had the key.

“Since moving to Nottingham to be nearer my own older daughter, I have been working my way though these papers, and found this album along with photos of my granny in 1917.

“It seemed right to share it more widely, and I will make a donation to the Poppy Appeal from any money raised.”

Read the entire article on the MSN website.
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