1
World War Two / Re: Intelligence Corps WWll
« on: Saturday 04 October 25 15:16 BST (UK) »
Once again, the research abilities of people on here are amazing. Thanks for all that, I'm on the trail!
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2
World War Two / Re: Intelligence Corps WWll
« on: Thursday 02 October 25 17:05 BST (UK) »
Oh that's interesting! Is it possibly they are the same person?
3
World War Two / Re: Intelligence Corps WWll
« on: Tuesday 30 September 25 15:52 BST (UK) »
Thank you for that. Yes, he did marry Olive Crabtree so that's the right one...
4
World War Two / Intelligence Corps WWll
« on: Tuesday 30 September 25 14:00 BST (UK) »
I'm helping someone with family research and they have encountered a Bernard Atkinson, born around 1898 (I can't decide which of two birth records at that time in Yorkshire relate to him at the moment but that isn't what I'm looking at right now...). He was apparently in the East Yorkshire Imperial Yeomanry as a Hotchkiss gunner in WWl, finally being sent home in November 1918 after being affected by mustard gas. He joined up again for WWll, this time in the Intelligence Corps. He served in Cairo, Athens, Italy, Mombasa and Malta before leaving with the rank of Captain in 1946.
This is all from family information and at the moment I can find no records of any of this, service number etc. I think I've always been able to find even the briefest info via Ancestry, even if it's just a note of medals, but the two Bernard Atkinsons who come up with WWl service are definitely not him. I know the records aren't complete so could anyone point me how to tackle this please?
Someone has details which are supposedly for him on an Ancestry tree but I think they may have picked up the wrong person so at the moment I'm not going to rely on anything there. I thought I could work backwards from his military information, assuming I can locate it, to be sure I have the right person once I start looking at other records etc.
This is all from family information and at the moment I can find no records of any of this, service number etc. I think I've always been able to find even the briefest info via Ancestry, even if it's just a note of medals, but the two Bernard Atkinsons who come up with WWl service are definitely not him. I know the records aren't complete so could anyone point me how to tackle this please?
Someone has details which are supposedly for him on an Ancestry tree but I think they may have picked up the wrong person so at the moment I'm not going to rely on anything there. I thought I could work backwards from his military information, assuming I can locate it, to be sure I have the right person once I start looking at other records etc.
5
United States of America / Re: Sent from the UK to the US for medical treatment
« on: Monday 25 August 25 14:21 BST (UK) »
I've since spoken to an older cousin who remembers visiting him as a small child in London after a SECOND operation in around 1951/52. She remembers he was brought outside to see them. The operation there was ultimately unsuccessful. It seems this may have been the National Neurological Hospital in Bloomsbury or possibly he was at the recovery hospital in Wimbledon. Both had outside areas for visitors. And both seem to have records available to check. So, depending on what I can find there, it may refer to the initial procedure in the US too and possibly pin down the dates. I still like the December 1949 arrival as being potentially him though, although I don't see anything about him returning to theUK at the moment. I understand the records are not totally complete though...
6
United States of America / Re: Sent from the UK to the US for medical treatment
« on: Friday 22 August 25 21:06 BST (UK) »
Also, having checked the NYC address given (the SSMC & A club in Manhattan) and info on that club, there is every likelihood they would have accommodated the son of a WWl veteran or siblings of WW2 servicemen (both applied) in his circumstances. So this December 1949 arrival may well be him. I'll see if I can find anything about him going home again...
7
United States of America / Re: Sent from the UK to the US for medical treatment
« on: Friday 22 August 25 18:05 BST (UK) »
Thanks. I was born after he had that operation so my memories are only of the effects from that. He was quite a lot older than my father and always lived at home with his parents. My father often commented that he may have been disabled but he had an acid tongue and kept his younger siblings in order! He was still not self-sufficient though and the highlight of his life was an annual trip with the Red Cross to various centres in places like Northallerton. They weren't hotels - I think they may have been a type of hostel for people with disabilities. My grandmother was effectively his carer throughout and he only left home to marry. I think at that point my grandmother felt her usefulness was over and she died not long afterwards. I also think that despite everything he was still contented with his lot, which is heartening given his problems.
I was very close to him as a child, he was a real countryman despite being so disabled. We used to go everywhere together, me holding his hand to slow him down and him speeding along with his lurching limp. He would send me off into the hedgerows looking for bird nests, dormice and lost golfballs in the local woods. People didn't understand him and I became his translator, even with cousins who didn't see him as often as me. It would probably be seen as very strange in today's climate I suppose... But I DO know he hadn't worked since he was a teenager and if his disabilities after the operation were an improvement then I can only assume he was severely impaired beforehand.
I don't think all that many people were sent to the US for the operation so I'm assuming they were selected for either the severity of their disability or after some sort of assessment of likely success. It was very experimental, and looking at how they re-sectioned nerves etc, it was dangerous too. I'm trying to find numbers and I have seen mention of 30, although at the moment I'm not sure if that is per group sent or a total. From my memories of him, he would have been pretty fearless about being one of the people taking part. It seems the NHS in those early days (this would have been right around its inception) didn't generally send people overseas so the whole thing will have been funded by either donations or a charity. All avenues to explore but I wanted to see if I could find him actually travelling and find some dates etc.
In fact I've just found an interesting one on Family Search, arriving into NY by AIR in December 1949 (apparently via Bermuda). It seems to suggest an Army connection so it may not fit, but I'm heartened to find a start!
I was very close to him as a child, he was a real countryman despite being so disabled. We used to go everywhere together, me holding his hand to slow him down and him speeding along with his lurching limp. He would send me off into the hedgerows looking for bird nests, dormice and lost golfballs in the local woods. People didn't understand him and I became his translator, even with cousins who didn't see him as often as me. It would probably be seen as very strange in today's climate I suppose... But I DO know he hadn't worked since he was a teenager and if his disabilities after the operation were an improvement then I can only assume he was severely impaired beforehand.
I don't think all that many people were sent to the US for the operation so I'm assuming they were selected for either the severity of their disability or after some sort of assessment of likely success. It was very experimental, and looking at how they re-sectioned nerves etc, it was dangerous too. I'm trying to find numbers and I have seen mention of 30, although at the moment I'm not sure if that is per group sent or a total. From my memories of him, he would have been pretty fearless about being one of the people taking part. It seems the NHS in those early days (this would have been right around its inception) didn't generally send people overseas so the whole thing will have been funded by either donations or a charity. All avenues to explore but I wanted to see if I could find him actually travelling and find some dates etc.
In fact I've just found an interesting one on Family Search, arriving into NY by AIR in December 1949 (apparently via Bermuda). It seems to suggest an Army connection so it may not fit, but I'm heartened to find a start!
8
United States of America / Re: Sent from the UK to the US for medical treatment
« on: Friday 22 August 25 14:06 BST (UK) »
I'm not sure where you are going with this, do you mean you don't think that he was ever seriously ill or went to the US for treatment?
As I said, my memories of him (and we spent much time together when I was a child) were that he walked with a very heavy limp dragging his right leg, wore a boot with an iron brace (colloquially called leg irons in those days) which fastened under his knee, held his right arm bent very stiffly into his waist and so could not write, spoke with very slurred speech, suffered debilitating headaches and on the side of his body that was not paralysed he had no sensation to hot, cold or pain. He also had a scar with noticeably stitch marks running down the back of his neck and all these would have been after the operation. I also know that this whole catalogue of problems was seen by him and his whole family generally as an improvement on his original condition, which would have been called post encephalitic parkinsonism.
This is a description of encephalitis lethargica. There seems to have been an epidemic of this in the late 1920s - Typical ongoing signs of encephalitis lethargica include a spectrum of neurological symptoms such as marked sleepiness (hypersomnia), eye movement disorders (like double vision), and parkinsonian-like symptoms (tremors, stiffness, slow movement) appearing months to years later. These chronic signs are often preceded by acute, fluctuating symptoms like flu-like illness, fever, headache, confusion, and behavioural changes. 20% of the cases resulted in death. As I said above, I do personally remember he had a scar running down the back of his neck and looking at the experimental pyramidotomy treatment that Tracy Puttnam pioneered, the usual operation would have involved cutting into segment C2 of the spinal cord. The C2 vertebra is just below neck level so the scar would have been several inches long, just as I remember.
Pre-illness he had been a farm worker and I don't see why that description could not be carried forward into that Court Case or into the 1939 Register, even if he was not actively employed. I know he had friends throughout his life and they did see that he was able to go out and about. As an example, his old employer, a Mr Palmer, used to pick him up by car to take him out to follow hunts. Although I had no idea about the court case and it seems a bit out of character from what I knew of him, it obviously really happened (perhaps the behavioural changes mentioned had something to do with that?). There is no doubt he actually had this condition and I know he was unable to work from being a very young man, the area I didn't originally know about was the US treatment.
So, my interest now is how he would have got to the US, where he went once he was there and who went with him (as he was unable to travel alone). My mother (now deceased) remembers him actually going to the US but no one had ever mentioned it independently to me so it was a surprise when I realised what had happened. I obviously have no knowledge of his condition prior to the operation, but if his condition (and therefore his life generally) afterwards is any indicator, then it must have been pretty awful. The family were always huge supporters of Red Cross and Salvation Army and I think both of them had schemes to assist in cases like this, although finding records might be a problem...
This is me as a very happy little four year old with my favourite uncle Holl. You can see how he has such a stiff right arm. He died in 1976 and the cause of death was given as pneumonia.
As I said, my memories of him (and we spent much time together when I was a child) were that he walked with a very heavy limp dragging his right leg, wore a boot with an iron brace (colloquially called leg irons in those days) which fastened under his knee, held his right arm bent very stiffly into his waist and so could not write, spoke with very slurred speech, suffered debilitating headaches and on the side of his body that was not paralysed he had no sensation to hot, cold or pain. He also had a scar with noticeably stitch marks running down the back of his neck and all these would have been after the operation. I also know that this whole catalogue of problems was seen by him and his whole family generally as an improvement on his original condition, which would have been called post encephalitic parkinsonism.
This is a description of encephalitis lethargica. There seems to have been an epidemic of this in the late 1920s - Typical ongoing signs of encephalitis lethargica include a spectrum of neurological symptoms such as marked sleepiness (hypersomnia), eye movement disorders (like double vision), and parkinsonian-like symptoms (tremors, stiffness, slow movement) appearing months to years later. These chronic signs are often preceded by acute, fluctuating symptoms like flu-like illness, fever, headache, confusion, and behavioural changes. 20% of the cases resulted in death. As I said above, I do personally remember he had a scar running down the back of his neck and looking at the experimental pyramidotomy treatment that Tracy Puttnam pioneered, the usual operation would have involved cutting into segment C2 of the spinal cord. The C2 vertebra is just below neck level so the scar would have been several inches long, just as I remember.
Pre-illness he had been a farm worker and I don't see why that description could not be carried forward into that Court Case or into the 1939 Register, even if he was not actively employed. I know he had friends throughout his life and they did see that he was able to go out and about. As an example, his old employer, a Mr Palmer, used to pick him up by car to take him out to follow hunts. Although I had no idea about the court case and it seems a bit out of character from what I knew of him, it obviously really happened (perhaps the behavioural changes mentioned had something to do with that?). There is no doubt he actually had this condition and I know he was unable to work from being a very young man, the area I didn't originally know about was the US treatment.
So, my interest now is how he would have got to the US, where he went once he was there and who went with him (as he was unable to travel alone). My mother (now deceased) remembers him actually going to the US but no one had ever mentioned it independently to me so it was a surprise when I realised what had happened. I obviously have no knowledge of his condition prior to the operation, but if his condition (and therefore his life generally) afterwards is any indicator, then it must have been pretty awful. The family were always huge supporters of Red Cross and Salvation Army and I think both of them had schemes to assist in cases like this, although finding records might be a problem...
This is me as a very happy little four year old with my favourite uncle Holl. You can see how he has such a stiff right arm. He died in 1976 and the cause of death was given as pneumonia.
9
United States of America / Re: Sent from the UK to the US for medical treatment
« on: Wednesday 20 August 25 12:58 BST (UK) »
Thank you for that. Interesting about the assault charges, that’s a new one to me but that’s definitely him. He was described as a farm labourer there although I know he was never able to work after the illness. Perhaps people just stuck with their original work status? I don’t think I’ve seen the 1939 Register for him at the moment.
Yes he married very late in life, prior to that he had always lived with his family. His wife was a lovely lady he met via the Red Cross and she had been left severely disabled after contracting measles as a child.
I have no firm information on what happened in the US other than my mother (now deceased) who was newly married and living in that same family home at the time, later told me about him going to the US for treatment. It must have been a major event within the family as, other than other sons’ wartime service overseas, they were not the sort of family to travel abroad. My own research suggests the treatment was pioneered by Tracy Putnam and although there were other treatments also pioneered in the UK, I’m relying on my mother’s memory of the circumstances. At the moment i have no real idea where he went etc so I’m trying to find his passage/arrival to see if that helps. As you say, it’s probably unlikely medical records still exist with the hospitals. Might be worth a try though!
Yes he married very late in life, prior to that he had always lived with his family. His wife was a lovely lady he met via the Red Cross and she had been left severely disabled after contracting measles as a child.
I have no firm information on what happened in the US other than my mother (now deceased) who was newly married and living in that same family home at the time, later told me about him going to the US for treatment. It must have been a major event within the family as, other than other sons’ wartime service overseas, they were not the sort of family to travel abroad. My own research suggests the treatment was pioneered by Tracy Putnam and although there were other treatments also pioneered in the UK, I’m relying on my mother’s memory of the circumstances. At the moment i have no real idea where he went etc so I’m trying to find his passage/arrival to see if that helps. As you say, it’s probably unlikely medical records still exist with the hospitals. Might be worth a try though!