Ahead of the Erskine Hospital’s 60th anniversary of opening its doors, a Daily Record reporter visited. He chatted to patients about their experiences and what had brought them to the hospital.

Matthew Kane was happy to tell John his story. Matthew was young, only 18 and a private in the Royal Irish Rifles when he was injured. Along with his comrades he clambered out of a trench and over the parapet in the Somme on 1st July 1916.  A date never to be forgotten. One that went down in history as the epitome of the brutal and seemingly senseless carnage that characterised trench warfare during World War I.

The Battle of the Somme, took place from July to November 1916.  It started as an Allied offensive against German forces on the Western Front. It turned into one of the most bitter and costly battles of World War I. 

Many of the British soldiers who fought at the Somme had volunteered for army service in 1914 and 1915 and saw combat for the first time in the battle.

Eleven British divisions left the trenches on that summer’s morning and by noon 60,000 men lay dead or dying, making it the single most disastrous day in the nation’s military history. They had been cut to ribbons by German Machine gunners.

Matthew could be considered one of the lucky ones, he lived but he didn’t come away unscathed, he lost his leg. “I was lucky” he said “I survived”.  He was one of the many young men who returned from war to be treated by Erskine.  For 60 years Matthew was in and out of Erskine receiving treatment.  For as comfortable as the Erskine leg was, as Matthew was heard to say:” The skin gets tender now and then”.

Another Veteran to share his experience was Royal Navy Veteran Alistair Gillies.  Alistair had been visiting Erskine for years, travelling from his home in Harris in the Outer Hebrides.  Confined to a wheelchair for over forty years he recalled:  “I was a leading seaman on a Royal Navy minesweeper, the Sotra.”  The Sotra was blown up by a mine outside Tobruk, a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt.

 Alistair survived but lost both his legs.  Again it was to Erskine he turned when his stumps gave him “a bit of bother”.

The nursing care and therapy at this time in Erskine played an important part in recovery. However equally as important was the emphasis placed on long-term rehabilitation.  The hospital regarded it as vital that no matter how badly crippled a man was he be given all possible help to rebuild his life. Not just physically but mentally too. This, the hospital reasoned, allowed him to make a contribution to the community in which he lived. 

Less than 10 years from first opening its doors the success of this approach spoke for itself. The majority, of the patients fitted with new arms or legs, having mastered new ways of walking and using their arms and perhaps having learned a new trade, left the shelter of the hospital to resume life where they had left off. They did so with determination and courage, many managing to walk considerable distances and even play golf and bowls in defiance of their disability. 

Adapted from “The Vanishing Willows” by John Calder and A Century of Care – Erskine 1916-2016