Volunteers needed to help capture forgotten war heritage
Volunteers are needed for a project to capture memories of a military hospital on Merseyside which pioneered treatment for soldiers with ‘shell-shock’ during the First World War.
If you are interested in local or family history drop in to Meadows Library in Maghull on July 21st (11am-4:30pm), where you can meet the team running a new project celebrating this important, but little-known heritage, and find out how you can get involved.
Moss Side Military Hospital in Maghull treated over 3,600 patients between opening in December 1914 and 1919, and became renowned in the developing field of psychological medicine. Clinical staff at the time were described as “the brilliant band of workers who…made Maghull the centre for the study of abnormal psychology.”
The Moss Side site eventually closed in 1995 and the buildings were later demolished, but it is now the subject of an exciting new Heritage Lottery Funded project at The Atkinson in Southport to ensure the legacy of those who worked and were treated there is not forgotten during the centenary commemorations of the Great War.
As well as unearthing fascinating local heritage for people in Sefton and across Merseyside, the project will also shine a light on how the ground-breaking treatment offered at Moss Side has influenced our modern understanding of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
In conjunction with academics from Manchester Metropolitan University, Sefton Library Services, archives consultant Kevin Bolton and Sefton Library Services, The Atkinson will launch ‘Maghull and the Great War Remembered: Shell Shock – the impact and aftermath on lives and minds’ at Meadows Library in Maghull on July 21st (11am-4:30pm).
Volunteers – or a new “brilliant band” – are needed to help collect oral histories, to add to existing archives, and help to run a series of exhibitions, workshops and events between October 2017 and November 2018.
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