A year after the hospital opened the first Erskine workshop was set up. The long term aim was to put disabled servicemen into employment best suited to their ability and disablement. 

The workshop was situated in a building in the hospital grounds, previously used for religious meetings by the family who had bought the Erskine mansion and its grounds in 1703.

It was April 1917.   The workshop was divided into three sections: one section was for construction and adjustment of artificial limbs; another had two weaving looms; and a third had up-to-date wood-working machines, a turning lathe and planing machine.

All rooms were constantly in use.

From the woodwork room men worked hard learning how to make model yachts, chicken coops and all kinds of woodwork. 

In addition basket-making was taught as well as boot-making. Under the supervision of a well-known Scottish bootmaker the veterans were learned the trade of boot and shoe repairing. The craft was much in need of skilled men as the war had severely depleted the number of qualified craftsmen.

An interesting fact to note is that the wages earned by the Erskine bootmakers after a fairly brief apprenticeship, ranged at this time from £2 to £4 weekly.

Another skill taught was Kilt-making for the army. This job was  described as of 'national importance', also provided careers for several disabled men after training at Erskine and later in the factories of a Glasgow firm of military contractors.

Bee-keeping classes, under an honorary bee master, Mr Alec Steven, began at Erskine as early as 1916 and by the summer of 1917 more than 70 men were sufficiently skilled in this ancient pursuit to start up on their own account.

Instruction was also given in hairdressing, tailoring and french polishing. One graduate from the hairdressing class who found employment in a Glasgow salon wrote later: 'The chaps who had an instructor at Erskine like Jimmy Doig have a lot to be thankful for — he's one in a thousand. '

Four years after the First World War Erskine-trained hairdressers, shoemakers, cabinetmakers and agriculturists were working at their trades in London and other parts of the United Kingdom, in Canada, Australia and even as far away as the Falkland Islands.

There were of course men so seriously disabled that they stood little chance of making their way on their own in the outside world and it was at Erskine that many of them found sanctuary; a permanent home with workshops facilities so accessible as to enable them to engage in reasonably congenial and, more important, financially rewarding employment. 

In 1920 the workshops were extended to provide increased space for the expanding bootmaking, basket work and cabinet-making departments; altogether at this time there were 10 different sections in what was now known as the Erskine Training Centre and employing a total of 140 trainees.

Throughout the years the workshops continued to be a focal point of the Erskine community.  In October 1948,a major decision was taken on the workshops' future. Following an expert study of the operation by the Glasgow industrialist Mr (later Sir Iain) Stewart, agreement was reached with the Ministry of Labour to incorporate the workshops under the Government's 'Sheltered Workshops' scheme in place of the vocational training scheme which had operated since the end of World War I.

Under this arrangement Erskine received a government grant towards the workshops wages bill and now became mainly a refuge for severely disabled men whose disabilities made them unlikely to find suitable employment in the competitive workaday world outside.

1980 there were 41 full-time employees or trainees, 29 of whom were considered by the Employment Services Agency to be too badly disabled to work in other than sheltered conditions. They were employed in surgical bootmaking, upholstery and furniture repairs, french polishing, printing, basketry and cane furniture making. There was also a six-acre market garden within the Erskine grounds which supplies the hospital kitchen with a plentiful supply of fresh produce.

More than half the goods produced at Erskine were sold direct to the public through the Crafts and Garden Centre, the Hospital Shop at Wellington Street, Glasgow and at public events organised by Erskine's legion of dedicated supporters.

In 1980, the sale of Erskine-made products topped £80,000 for the first time and included a contribution, albeit a modest one, of more than £2500 to the country's export trade.

To find out more about Erskine’s work please visit our website at www.erskine.org.uk, follow on twitter @ErskineCharity via Facebook www.facebook.com/ErskineVeteransCharity or listen to Erskine Veterans Radio at Erskine.org.uk/radio or Paisley FM 107.5