麻豆社

A previously unheard interview with Evelyn Barker from North Ormesby recorded in the 1980's gives us an interesting insight into the impact the war had. Her husband suffered from mental health issues after he returned from the front, "He really wasn't well when he came home. Many a night he didn't sleep. He had nightmares. He was a nervous wreck. He didn't get anything for that. No pension."

Soldiers who served in World War One endured some of the most terrible forms of warfare ever known. Many thousands began suffering strange symptoms from uncontrollable twitching to terrible nightmares.

A number of names to describe this new 'illness' were suggested but the one that stuck was "shell shock". By the end of the war 80,000 men would have been diagnosed with the condition.

Location: North Ormesby, Middlesbrough TS3 6LD
Image courtesy of IWM