An enjoyable session today at Brighton Museum at the Pavilion Blues exhibition with participants from our Boys on the Plaque – Conversation Cafes group who meet on the second Wednesday of every month.
Nicola Benge of Strike a Light escorted the group to visit the exhibition, and had a guided talk by curator Jo Palache who explained how difficult it had been to find the artefacts now on display with a bit of detective work to track images down.
Some of the items had been found under the floorboards of the Royal Pavilion much later after the time when it serves as a hospital for limbless men recovering from their time in battle in World War I.
Pavilion Blues: Disability & Identity
From 1916 to 1920 over 6,000 military amputees were treated at the Royal Pavilion, Dome and Corn Exchange in Brighton. To commemorate this centenary, the story of the Pavilion Military Hospital for limbless soldiers is being told in the current exhibition, Pavilion Blues: Disability & Identity, at Brighton Museum.
After the closure of the Indian Military Hospital in the early months of 1916, the Royal Pavilion was refitted to provide specialist treatment and rehabilitation to servicemen who had one or more limbs amputated.
The treatment could take between three to six months in order to ensure the patients’ wounds had healed sufficiently for the men to return to civilian life.
The exhibition carries on until November 2016 and we recommend a visit to the museum to view it!
Next Conversation Cafe
Our next Conversations Cafe event will be taking place on Wednesday 13th July at the Rare Books archive in Jubilee Library (Second Floor), Brighton. Free. From 2.30-4.30pm.
We welcome historian Dr Anne Logan who will be discussing the role of women in the First World War. She specialises in nineteenth and 20th century British social history and women’s history.
Look forward to seeing you there!