Remembrance Services and Parades within Formby and Hightown

ONCE again it is the time of year when we remember all those who died in the 2 world wars and in all other conflicts that followed. This year it will also be the 100th Anniversary of the end of the 1st World War.

These some local services, on Sunday, 11 November 2018, that are as follows:-

► 09:30 hrs - St.Michael`s Altcar.

► 10:45 hrs - Hightown War Memorial.

► 11:00 hrs - St.Stephen`s Hightown.

► 12:30 hrs - Ince Blundell War Memorial.

► 10:50 hrs - Formby War Memorial. This service will include the laying of wooden crosses.

► 12:30 hrs - Formby Our Lady`s Cemetery Polish War Graves.

► 15:00 hrs Holy Trinity Formby Civic Remembrance Service - This will include the laying of wreaths and a Parade, from and to the Guild Hall, Church Road, Formby, when the Mayor of Sefton takes the salute, at the War Memorial.

The Garden Of Remembrance Crosses situated at the Formby War Memorial, will be open from the 1 November for the public to lay a cross in remembrance of relations and loved ones lost.

This year Crosses can be obtained from Formby Home previously Formby Hardware Store, for a small donation to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal - Merseyside and West...

The Formby Royal British Legion Poppy Stalls will be located within both:- Waitrose (Formby) and Tesco Formby from Wednesday, 7 November 2018 to Friday, 9 November 2018, will also have them available..

**History of 1st military Hospital to treat soldiers with 'shell shock' revealed on Armistice Day**

THE remarkable history of the 1st Hospital to treat soldiers with 'shell shock' will be shared with the public on Armistice Day. Moss Side Military Hospital, on Merseyside, was the 1st specialist Hospital to treat what is now understood as:- 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' (PTSD) for those who had witnessed the horrors of the 1st World War. Between 1914 and 1919, its pioneering staff treated 3,600 patients using the developing field of psychological medicine.

Supported by historians from Manchester Metropolitan University, archives consultant Kevin Bolton, staff from the Atkinson Museum and local volunteers have spent the last year on a Heritage Lottery Fund project uncovering fascinating stories of those who lived and worked at Moss Side Military Hospital in Maghull.

This rare archival material forms a new exhibition:- 'Moss Side and the Great War Remembered' at the Atkinson Museum, in Southport, which will be open for a free day of talks, presentations and activities relating to the project, on Sunday, 11 November 2018.

Visitors will be able to find out how medical professionals worked with the local community, in Maghull, to treat those traumatised by their experiences on the Western Front, and those who were treated.

Stephen Whittle, Principal Manager of Museum, Gallery and Operations at The Atkinson, said:- "The story of Moss Side Military Hospital is fascinating and really inspiring. It's wonderful that local volunteers have been able to carry out so much original research and bring to light a part not only of Maghull's history but the wider history of the early treatment of shell shock."

Dr Sam Edwards, Director of the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage at Manchester Metropolitan University, said:- "Through their dedication and hard work, the volunteers researching the 1st World War history and heritage of Moss Side Military Hospital, Maghull, have uncovered some fascinating stories which shed new light on how soldiers, patients and medical staff responded to the traumas inflicted by the fighting on the Western Front. This is an important, and previously neglected, part of our national story."

History:-

► By December 1914, as many as 10% of British officers and 4% of enlisted men were suffering from:- "nervous and mental shock."

► Moss Side was the 1st Hospital for treatment that avoided sending patients to the county asylum, and within 4 weeks of opening was home to 83 patients.

► In May 1915, Major Richard Rows was appointed medical superintendent, who formed what was termed as a:- "brilliant band" of psychologists and doctors to treat patients and develop understanding of:- 'War Neurosis' believing it to be the result of a repressed trauma. Soldiers were taken in sympathetically and encouraged to discuss their problems.

► Other staff members included William Brown, a reader in psychology from King's College London, who later played a key role in establishing shell shock treatment in France and Flanders, before becoming commandant of Craiglockhart Hospital near Edinburgh, where he treated poet and soldier Wilfred Owen. Thomas Hatherley Pear, who also worked at Moss Side, later published the influential 'Shell Shock and its Lessons' in 1917 and went on to become the 1st full time professor of psychology in the country.

► Moss Side finally closed as a military Hospital in 1933, it then later becoming a General Hospital, before being demolished in 2010.

Patients:-

► Trained volunteers have unearthed old case records of patients, detailing their physical and mental symptoms. These will be on display in the exhibition.

► Some have also been written up as case studies, such as the case of Private Samuel Pickstock, from Runcorn.

► Samuel was badly injured at the Battle of the Somme, lying on the battlefield for 4 days until being discovered. As a result, he experienced severe mental trauma and was admitted to Moss Side.

► Here, he met Emily Webb, who was working at the Hospital. They later married and lived in Liverpool, going on to have 3 children.