Not attributable to service: first world war veterans' 'second battle' with the Canadian pension system
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2009
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Abstract
The focus of this thesis is to provide a greater understanding of First World War veteran re-establishment in Western Canada. By examining the pension files of a sample group of veterans from the 10th Canadian Infantry Battalion (soldiers from Calgary and Winnipeg) the realities of how Board of Pension Commissioners (later the Canadian Pension Commission), Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment and Military Hospital Commission (later the Department of Pensions and National Health) policies affected the post-war lives of veterans will be illuminated. A specific emphasis was placed on the re-establishment efforts of those veterans who suffered from 'shell shock', neurasthenia or any other form of war neurosis. The cases studied will reveal that many veterans suffered from undiagnosed symptoms of psychological trauma and struggled in their re-establishment efforts with little or no support from the government. Those who were diagnosed with a neurosis during the war struggled to prove their symptoms were permanent, and not temporary as pension policy dictated. The mental casualties of war continually appealed pension decisions hoping their symptoms would be ruled attributable to service, while the entitlement of those who suffered from visible or physical wounds were - for the most part - never questioned. Canadian war pension policy promoted 'self-sufficiency' and in theory pensions were only to be awarded when a disability prevented this from actualization. However, the examples of this study will show that the nature of a veteran's disability was what really mattered and as a result mental casualties were left behind by the Canadian pension system.
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Bibliography: p. 118-121
Some pages are in colour.
Some pages are in colour.
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Citation
Clark, C. (2009). Not attributable to service: first world war veterans' 'second battle' with the Canadian pension system (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/3049