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Thread: Shell Shock

  1. #1
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    Default Shell Shock

    I have found a death certificate for my great uncle William McCulloch in Hartwood Asylum, Shotts, Scotland in 1917. He was 26 years old. My thought is that he went to war and came home broken. The Family were from Coatbridge and his brother (my grandfather) appears in the book Coatbridge and the Great War which was published in 1919. William doesn't. I have been in touch with the NHS records but they have asked if I can discover when he may have been admitted to the Asylum.

    My supposition is that my great uncle suffered from shell shock or PTSD which would not have been understood at the time. My question is ..... Is there a way of discovering if men were dishonourably discharged?

    Any help would be much appreciated

    Anderson

  2. #2
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    Default

    It looks like very little of the records have survived:

    The patient records for Hartwood Asylum/ Mental Hospital are held at Hairmyres General Hospital East Kilbride G75 8RG.

    https://
    web.archive.org/web/20140327035347/https://asylumgeographer.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/the-lost-archive-lanark-district-asylum/

    This site may also help:
    https://
    www.oldscottish.com/asylum-patients.html

    What does his death certificate give as the cause of death? It is always dangerous to make assumptions in family history.

    If he was medically discharged from the army then as far as I understand it that does not constitute a dishonourable discharge.

  3. #3
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    There is a william Mc Cullough's records on Ancestry:

    Although he states he was born in Scotland, he joined the Royal Irish Rifles, service number 18256. He was discharged "medically unfit" dated 16th January 1915. He originally joined on 16 September 1914.

    His mother's name was Jane.

    Is this yours?

  4. #4

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    What is the cause of death on the death certificate? There's a couple of WMs in the pension records section of Ancestry...
    A little background - many men were discharged as unfit in WW1, simply because so many of the working class were unhealthy. He would have had little choice of regiment, as men joined up, they were sent where they were most needed.
    There are 7 men of the right name in the RIR and on the medals index cards. None has the number in #3, but during WW1 if men changed regiment he also changed number. They weren't standardized until late in the war.

    One last thing, and why we ask about the cause of death, you need to be sure he was an Asylum patient. I had a similar surprise when i found that my Grandmother married from Cupar Asylum - it turned out that her father was a ploughman on the Asylum farm! i think you're right in William's case, but it's nice to be sure.

  5. #5
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    Thank you . I think I may have found a record for him on the old scottish web site. (The other link does not work)

    His death certificate mentions "morbus cordis unknown and artira schlorosis". I think this is heart disease. Thank you for your point about making assumptions. I think I got carried away with a rather romanticised idea of a returning solider and of course it may be no such thing.

    Many thanks

    Anderson

  6. #6
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    not my gentleman but thank you for the assistance

  7. #7

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    That cause of death raises another possibility - some Asylums in Scotland also served as a local nursing home/cottage hospital. Heart trouble plus arteriosclerosis would have been enough to put him in there!

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