0:00:02 > 0:00:05DISCORDANT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC
0:00:49 > 0:00:53RUMBLING EXPLOSION
0:00:56 > 0:01:01# Oh, we don't want to lose you
0:01:01 > 0:01:06# But we think you should go... #
0:01:06 > 0:01:12The Disabled Century came into dramatic focus with the First World War.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Where previously, disabled people were the isolated "deserving poor",
0:01:16 > 0:01:20the war now created a disabled army -
0:01:20 > 0:01:25one and a half million war-wounded losing limb or mind, or both.
0:01:31 > 0:01:37We were getting ready to go over the top again when a shell burst overhead.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43One fellow jumped out of the trench and went screaming down the line.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Screaming. We called it shell shock.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50You get a shell-shocked man crying.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53Crying for home.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57His mind's gone... Completely gone.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03I was the first ambulance driver at the local workhouse.
0:02:03 > 0:02:09I had the job of taking a shell-shocked man to a mental hospital,
0:02:09 > 0:02:13because he was past...past curing.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15You always had an attendant
0:02:15 > 0:02:20because a shell-shocked man was classed as mental.
0:02:20 > 0:02:28He could get better, and on the other hand, if he was too bad, he'd be sent to a proper mental home.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32But you could always tell. They can't walk straight.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35And they get pains in the head.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38And the face swells.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And they get all the symptoms.
0:02:41 > 0:02:47All the symptoms...we'll call it, "as a drunk man", again.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Dick Trafford was war-disabled -
0:02:55 > 0:02:59wounded in the Somme, Looes, Passchendaele, Verdun...
0:02:59 > 0:03:04You felt you didn't want to get hit. You didn't want to be badly wounded.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09You'd sooner get a bullet that would finish you off altogether.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12I think that was the attitude.
0:03:12 > 0:03:19There was this dark room, and there were soldiers - ex-soldiers - laying there.
0:03:19 > 0:03:26No arms at all, no legs... and in total darkness.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31They might as well have been dead,
0:03:31 > 0:03:34like... There was no life at all.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38They were what you'd call just "living".
0:03:38 > 0:03:40Terrible.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44The men were dropping round you like flies,
0:03:44 > 0:03:49getting killed by the thousand - not by hundreds, by the thousand.
0:03:49 > 0:03:57Horace Blackburn, himself disabled from childhood, recalls fitting the limbs to disabled ex-soldiers.
0:03:57 > 0:04:04I got the job in the Cripple Aid and I remember one day this man was helped into the back shop.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07He'd lost both legs in the war.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11He pushed himself around on a little platform...
0:04:11 > 0:04:19And had to have special things on his hands. He propelled himself along the pavement with his hands.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22We would patch this contrivance
0:04:22 > 0:04:26with a bit of waste material, anything we had left over...
0:04:28 > 0:04:31One gun exploded as we were passing.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37And it caused my left ear to burst... and bleed.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44When a German shell overhead exploded, one piece...
0:04:44 > 0:04:47severed the end of my thumb.
0:04:47 > 0:04:54..I remember I went home and told my mother, and said I'd seen these men like that,
0:04:54 > 0:04:58and was told, "Well, that's what happens, son, with war."
0:04:58 > 0:05:01They're just... Nobody wants them.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04They've done their bit,
0:05:04 > 0:05:11and they're just fobbed off with perhaps a little bit of pension, and that's it.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15An arm, I think, were four shilling. An arm.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17And...
0:05:17 > 0:05:22I think a leg was about five or six.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25My leg... My leg was on the Somme.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28I was hit in the throat
0:05:28 > 0:05:31by a sniper's bullet.
0:05:32 > 0:05:39They said if it's mustard gas, going over to the Germans the wind could blow the wrong way,
0:05:39 > 0:05:46and blow the gas back on us. Didn't do you any good. I got a piece of shrapnel in my ankle.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Apart from that, they kept me in the army, in and out the trenches.
0:05:50 > 0:05:56"We can't afford to sign you to Blighty. We want you back up the line."
0:05:56 > 0:06:03FEMALE VIBRATO VOICE
0:06:03 > 0:06:08# I'm going to be a lad I'm going to be a lad I will be a lad some day... #
0:06:08 > 0:06:13The war brought disablement into the open at a time
0:06:13 > 0:06:21when the Government was locking away learning-disabled people under the 1913 Mental Defectives Act.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25Bill Surrey was locked away when he was seven years old.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29He spent his life locked away.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34I must've been like the others, the "low grade", if see you what I mean,
0:06:34 > 0:06:37when I was younger.
0:06:38 > 0:06:44"Helpless person". Helpless. Evil ain't it, something like that?
0:06:44 > 0:06:49It's not THEIR fault, is it? I might have been one a little bit...
0:06:49 > 0:06:52wanting help.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58Bill Surrey's family tried to stop Bill being taken from them.
0:06:58 > 0:07:05I did see a man named Mr Curtis. Someone said he was in charge of County Hall.
0:07:05 > 0:07:12My mother asked, can she take me home. They said, "Very sorry, Mrs Surrey."
0:07:12 > 0:07:16I said to my mum, "Don't worry about that. It's not your fault.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19"I'm OK there for the time being."
0:07:20 > 0:07:25Must be 70 years, if I went in in 1919.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29I think it's 70, I'm not sure.
0:07:29 > 0:07:35When I went there, the early days, they'd have silent pictures.
0:07:35 > 0:07:42A film was called Pancho, Masked Rider.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46I got put there when I was nine.
0:07:47 > 0:07:55And they kept on saying in 13 years time I wouldn't be here. I was supposed to have left in 13 years.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57Know what I mean?
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Didn't hear no more.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05I didn't talk to anybody for a week. I didn't know nobody, you see.
0:08:07 > 0:08:12They give it a name. A lot of us didn't want to be "MD".
0:08:12 > 0:08:16They had it in their mind to get away from the hospital.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Couldn't get out the lodge gate. They'd lock it up, see what I mean,
0:08:21 > 0:08:26in case a patient escaped from their place, tried to get away.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31They'd maybe run off. I climbed over the wall. Nobody see me.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36I put my jacket on the wall, of course, in case I cut my hands.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41They sent the staff after me, take me back.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45In the end, the nurse who saw me said,
0:08:45 > 0:08:51"I'm sorry, you have to go to ward nine." To see the doctor, you see.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54In ward nine, if you'd run away...
0:08:54 > 0:09:00you'd have a haircut like a convict, see, as a punishment.
0:09:00 > 0:09:05If you'd kick up rough, they had a doctor who would give you a needle,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08calm you down, put you to sleep.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13In the night, four or five staff would hold you down.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18Learning-disabled children were not the only ones sent away.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24Many disabled children were segregated in the name of improvement and schooling,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28like Bill and Peggy Dixon - sent away in the 1920s.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32FEMALE INTERPRETER OF SIGN LANGUAGE: My mother said, "We're going off to the seaside."
0:09:32 > 0:09:39We had to catch this train from Victoria Station - and there were all these other children there.
0:09:39 > 0:09:46My mother met the headmaster to talk about me. The children were getting on the train, and the door closed!
0:09:46 > 0:09:51I'm waving out the window, "Get on the train!" She said, "No."
0:09:51 > 0:09:57The train started. I was banging on the window, and crying and crying.
0:09:57 > 0:10:04- MALE INTERPRETER:- I got in and they closed the door. "I want my mum! I want my mum to put me on the train!"
0:10:04 > 0:10:11They wouldn't let her. I was crying, and the train was pulling out. She was crying. I banged on the window,
0:10:11 > 0:10:17wanting to get out. This woman said, "Don't worry. Here's your case. We're going to the seaside."
0:10:17 > 0:10:24I said, "I don't know what you're talking about." We ended up at this huge school. I was really upset.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29People were signing. I didn't know what was going on. They thought I was stupid because I couldn't sign.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Don't lip read, don't speak, you have to sign.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38"We don't know what you're talking about." I didn't know what THEY were saying. It was so frightening.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43I was really upset. I was crying. This woman said, "Oh, don't cry..."
0:10:43 > 0:10:51We got there, and I didn't get any tea or anything. I had to go straight to bed, on the first day.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56I got into bed, and I missed my mum. She was gone! I was crying.
0:10:56 > 0:11:00I'd always had my brother to talk to before bed,
0:11:00 > 0:11:05and these people were poking and signing at me in the night. I was frightened.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12I know some of the children in this class.
0:11:12 > 0:11:19I wasn't there, because these are the kids that were sort of hard of hearing. They had hearing aids,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24and I didn't. Yes, this is our class. I know some of them.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28I'm just on the side, here. I'm the fair-haired one on the side
0:11:28 > 0:11:34Segregation was considered caring in a society which did not care for disabled people,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38and it made strangers of these children when they returned home.
0:11:38 > 0:11:46My mother said to me and my friends, "No, don't sign! It looks mad. Terrible." I didn't know what to do.
0:11:46 > 0:11:52I could lip read, but not sign. At school I could, but I had to speak at home.
0:11:52 > 0:11:58I'd get a piece of paper and blow it off to practise P and S.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02She said, "I'm really proud of you. You speak really well."
0:12:02 > 0:12:07Those were just exercises to learn to speak!
0:12:07 > 0:12:15Gladys Brooks was one of many who had their childhood dominated by crude medical mistreatment.
0:12:15 > 0:12:22Caught up in the idea of correcting disability, the doctors humiliated her and her body.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25I was, as a baby, strapped onto a frame,
0:12:25 > 0:12:29which was canvas on a steel frame.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34And I was on that more or less permanently for about 2½ years,
0:12:34 > 0:12:39hoping that the curvature of the spine, the "hump", as they called it then,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43would go down...which it did.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48But when the hump goes down, your bottom comes up.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53At the hospital, the doctor said, "Yes, we can give him an operation, but it'll cost about £200,
0:12:53 > 0:13:00"and it will ruin his face. It'll be distorted from the operation." My mother was upset.
0:13:00 > 0:13:09There was a 50-50 chance whether I'd hear anything. My mother WAS upset. "No! Just LEAVE his ears."
0:13:09 > 0:13:14You know. "He's deaf - let's just leave it at that."
0:13:14 > 0:13:19Another thing they used was... I don't quite know what to call it.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23It was a box affair, and it had...
0:13:23 > 0:13:28From the roof part it had leather straps with a circle of leather
0:13:28 > 0:13:33which was strapped around my neck with the two thongs going up.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38And there, I had to lift my bottom off the floor...
0:13:38 > 0:13:45They had, again... I could relieve myself with... There was two handles on the side.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48But it was pretty gruesome.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52They used to get me to climb up the bars,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and I hung.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00And the idea of that was that they might stretch my spine.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04The weight of my body would bring me up straighter
0:14:04 > 0:14:07and so make me slightly taller.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10But in fact it didn't.
0:14:13 > 0:14:19When I was about four or five, we went up to Great Ormond Street.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24We'd been going up there every year since they found I had some sort of muscular dystrophy.
0:14:24 > 0:14:31The doctor said, "Well, Mrs Harding, we can do no more for your children.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35"We doubt if they'll live to their teens."
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Mum said, "Well, if that's the case, we'll go home and start living."
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And the teens come,
0:14:43 > 0:14:48and the 20s come, and the 30s come and the 40s come,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and the 50s come and the 60s come!
0:14:51 > 0:14:56And I'm still here. And even my sister lived till she was 65.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05My father encouraged me to go to the clinic twice a week
0:15:05 > 0:15:11and try these exercises out. But it was extremely painful.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15And psychologically, one of the most painful things
0:15:15 > 0:15:20was to be told very often when I walked in the clinic room
0:15:20 > 0:15:26that my bottom protruded so much that if they put a cup of tea on it, it wouldn't spill over.
0:15:26 > 0:15:30That, for almost a teenager...
0:15:30 > 0:15:37I mean, it is mental torture, really, to think that you are never going to straighten up...
0:15:37 > 0:15:43Nevertheless, my bottom still protrudes, but I've never been able to carry a cup of tea on it!
0:15:43 > 0:15:48As soon as I left school at 14, my mother had a letter to say,
0:15:48 > 0:15:54"Sorry, no more can be done for your daughter. No more trips to the clinic."
0:15:54 > 0:15:59# Happy days are here again... #
0:15:59 > 0:16:03If an able-bodied man with two arms and legs, two eyes and ears,
0:16:03 > 0:16:07could not find work in the unemployed 1930s,
0:16:07 > 0:16:15a disabled man whom society already considered useless had even less chance.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18I tried many different kinds of jobs.
0:16:18 > 0:16:23One of the jobs I thought would just suit me down to the ground
0:16:23 > 0:16:28was the...bellboy, "Buttons" as they called them.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30These young boys in hotels.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35And they wore a nice uniform with a little pillbox hat on.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39And I thought, "Well, I'll apply for that."
0:16:39 > 0:16:43And they said, "I'm sorry, you're too small.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48"The uniforms we have are four or five or six inches longer.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53"Inches too long for you. I'm afraid it's no good."
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Then... There used to be one or two "pillboxes"
0:16:57 > 0:17:01at the posh picture houses. I went there.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05I applied there for the job. Again it was the same thing.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08"Sorry. The uniform we have is far too big."
0:17:08 > 0:17:12There was an advertisement in the news.
0:17:12 > 0:17:19My mother said, "This is for you. Surely they can't refuse you this time." It was a working jeweller.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22He looked over the counter.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25"No, I'm afraid not, son. You're too small."
0:17:25 > 0:17:32My mother almost rolled up her sleeves and says, "I'm going to have a talk with this man.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38"It doesn't require the physique of a Hercules to be a watchmaker."
0:17:38 > 0:17:42# ..Your cares and troubles are gone... #
0:17:44 > 0:17:49In the 1930s, one of the few places disabled men and women got work
0:17:49 > 0:17:53was in the institution or charity workshops -
0:17:53 > 0:17:56albeit for little or no pay.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02Inside, there was a printer's. On the other side, a bookbinder's.
0:18:02 > 0:18:08A carpenter's shop, they had... And I'll tell you what they used to make.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10Coffins.
0:18:10 > 0:18:16I worked downstairs. I was in charge of the dayroom and the lobby.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19I had to scrub the kitchen out.
0:18:19 > 0:18:26Under our staircase there were all, like, rats' holes round the sides.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31I used to scrub it. No light under there.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33I might've been 12.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41I went to a couple of children's aid societies.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Oh, I got a job all right.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47And I was fair with myself.
0:18:47 > 0:18:53And at the end of the week, when I saw the ridiculously small pay...
0:18:53 > 0:18:57I was supposed to get a small rise every six months.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02And when I DIDN'T get that rise, my mother complained about it.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07I remember a lawyer came and showed my mother a form,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10which was from the Board of Trade,
0:19:10 > 0:19:15saying that as the employees were crippled,
0:19:15 > 0:19:21they couldn't be possibly expected to earn...the same amount of work.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25I hated it, I loathed it, it was dirty,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27it was long hours, it was low pay -
0:19:27 > 0:19:32but I stuck to it. I stuck to it for five years.
0:19:32 > 0:19:38# When things go funny And there isn't any money Have a seaside holiday at home! #
0:19:38 > 0:19:42Many people were poor in the pre-Welfare State 1930s,
0:19:42 > 0:19:48but disabled people and their families were among the poorest.
0:20:33 > 0:20:40I had no wheelchair - we couldn't afford one - so I crawled everywhere on my hands and knees.
0:20:40 > 0:20:45I could run... Well, I couldn't "run", but I could keep up with every other kid in the block.
0:20:45 > 0:20:52We lived on the fourth floor of a four storey block of flats. Don't ask me how come,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56cos my mum had two bloody children, and we were both disabled.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59And there was 53 stairs down,
0:20:59 > 0:21:06which I could get down in two minutes. And it took me five minutes to get back again.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11But I used to get down all them stairs, crawl out to the front.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Every Saturday morning was the cinema, with all the kids.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18I used to crawl, oh, I dunno...
0:21:18 > 0:21:22a mile and a half,
0:21:22 > 0:21:26all over the pavements with all the other kids.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29And...
0:21:29 > 0:21:33Well, I could crawl as they could run or walk.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37And we used to go to the cinema, sing our little songs,
0:21:37 > 0:21:41then come out and play cowboys and Indians all the way back again.
0:21:41 > 0:21:47And on Sunday afternoon, if we had the money, I'd crawl to another one,
0:21:47 > 0:21:52which must've been at least 2½ miles, with the kids.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56We went there on a Sunday cos it only cost us a penny.
0:21:56 > 0:22:03I was just one of the kids and that was that. They never queried why I couldn't walk.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09The build-up to war meant the evacuation of thousands of children.
0:22:09 > 0:22:14Snowy Harding remembers how the able-bodied children left first.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19When all the children started to be evacuated from all the area,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24I remember one day sitting upstairs looking out of the window -
0:22:24 > 0:22:28cos we had the main railway station in the street.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33There was all these kids, hundreds of 'em, coming along three deep.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38All had their little gas masks and little brown parcels.
0:22:38 > 0:22:44All the mothers running alongside crying their eyes out. It was a scene I'll never forget.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48After a few days the streets were SO quiet.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52It was absolutely frightening, it was.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57I used to crawl around the streets, and there wasn't anybody in sight.
0:22:57 > 0:23:04It seemed as if the Pied Piper had been down the street and all the kids had gone.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08And it was, well, "the war without children".
0:23:08 > 0:23:11His able-bodied friends were evacuated to families,
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Snowy - to an institution.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20In the following April, the authorities come round and said,
0:23:20 > 0:23:26"If you don't let your children go, we'll take 'em away." So we went.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Dad saw this place in Essex called Fairfield.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33And there they were, waiting for us.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38It was bloody AWFUL, it was. Two wheelchairs all ready for us.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43And they were all SMILING as if, I dunno, "We've got you two at last!"
0:23:43 > 0:23:48And it was a total shock, I tell ya, cos the children I'd left behind...
0:23:48 > 0:23:53I was just a normal kid, although I crawled on my hands and knees.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57And there was I, stuck in a wheelchair
0:23:57 > 0:24:00with 40-odd disabled boys.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03And it was a culture-shock, I think.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08- And the next bit, I realised that- I- wasn't like everybody else.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11I was disabled.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15So I knuckled down to being disabled for the next two years
0:24:15 > 0:24:17before I left.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23# And a nightingale sang In Berkeley Square... #
0:24:23 > 0:24:27Do I remember what I was doing at the outbreak of war? At the actual time of 11 o'clock,
0:24:27 > 0:24:34I was sorting Braille books in the school library where I'd been evacuated.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40I was just barely 15, and all at sea in a different school I hadn't been to.
0:24:40 > 0:24:45But I became friendly with one of the masters, a very nice old chap.
0:24:45 > 0:24:51He said, "Pye, you're interested in Braille. Come and help me sort out the library."
0:24:51 > 0:24:58Then he said, "We'd better listen to this announcement by the Prime Minister, hadn't we?"
0:24:58 > 0:25:01We heard these momentous words...
0:25:01 > 0:25:06"I have to inform you that no such undertaking has been received,
0:25:06 > 0:25:09"and so, from now, Great Britain is at war with Germany."
0:25:09 > 0:25:11- PRIME MINISTER:- ..Britain is at war with Germany.
0:25:11 > 0:25:17You could feel it sort of... "Oh, God. What's going to happen?"
0:25:17 > 0:25:19When I was evacuated,
0:25:19 > 0:25:26all the boys used to wake up about 12 o'clock, when you heard the planes coming over.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30One of the boys used to kneel down, and I'd get on his back
0:25:30 > 0:25:34and we'd creep out, up the stairs, into the loo,
0:25:34 > 0:25:39and used to stand on the loo where there was a little, tiny window...
0:25:39 > 0:25:44Grilles over the windows, there was, as if we was going to escape.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49And you could see all of the East End of London...just blazing away.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54And I used to think, "Bloody hell, my PARENTS are out there."
0:25:56 > 0:26:00But you never forget the sort of views we used to see,
0:26:00 > 0:26:05when the sky was bright red everywhere you looked.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08# Pom, pom, Get in your shelter. #
0:26:08 > 0:26:11It was a very lonely time.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16I was in this huge ward with roughly 40 other children.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18On hearing the sirens,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23I just knew that everybody would come rushing,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28that there was a routine of taking the children...
0:26:28 > 0:26:32I guess each child had been allocated to a particular person.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37On the first occasion they took me with them.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42That was the only time I went. They didn't take me after that.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46I was the only child left in the ward.
0:26:46 > 0:26:53It was a kind of punishment, really, because I was seen to be in the ward a long time,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57and it was...almost that they were tired of me.
0:27:33 > 0:27:40- CHURCHILL:- ..Nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
0:27:42 > 0:27:47The first year it started, I had a breakdown, see what I mean.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50I worked in the workshop,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55and Mr Prew said, "Bill, I better take you back to the ward.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59"You've not had no sleep for two or three nights."
0:27:59 > 0:28:04I saw the doctor - named Dr Barnes - who put me on a tonic.
0:28:04 > 0:28:09Had it every night at 8 o'clock before going to bed.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13The bottom floor, I slept. Didn't hear nothing at all!
0:28:13 > 0:28:17I slept by a person, a sensible patient, he said,
0:28:17 > 0:28:22"Now you have that, Bill, you won't hear nothing." I didn't hear nothing.
0:28:22 > 0:28:27I had a nice sleep. The first year, I couldn't sleep - guns and that.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32You had to carry your own mattress down the stairs.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I slept in the day.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39# Moonlight becomes you
0:28:40 > 0:28:44# It goes with your hair... #
0:28:44 > 0:28:47I won't forget that night in 1944.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51My sister and I were standing in the front door of my parents' home,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54looking out towards London.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Air raid on - always exciting.
0:28:57 > 0:29:02Searchlights criss-crossing in the sky, the drone of German bombers...
0:29:02 > 0:29:07They went woom, woom, woom, woom. A most peculiar noise. Quite ominous.
0:29:07 > 0:29:12..and the flash of anti-aircraft shells bursting.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Suddenly there was a brilliant blue flash.
0:29:15 > 0:29:21A high-explosive bomb went off, a surface blast 15 feet from me.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24Blew in the house front, killed my sister.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30The front door had gone upstairs, taking part of my arm with it,
0:29:30 > 0:29:35and left me on the floor, spitting ceiling plaster when I came round,
0:29:35 > 0:29:43and looked down at my left leg, and saw it was in a peculiar position. Didn't like the look of that.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48When I came to and saw this cage under the blankets,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50I said, "What's that?"
0:29:50 > 0:29:55It was a hell of a shock when someone said, "Well, I'm afraid your left leg's been taken off."
0:29:55 > 0:30:00DOODLEBUG DRONE
0:30:00 > 0:30:02It sounded like motorbikes.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07You know - it was the noise of a motorbike, only it was non-stop.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12It just didn't stop. It went on and on continuously.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16And we thought, what on earth could this BE?
0:30:16 > 0:30:24It wasn't until the morning, with the national papers, that we then understood they were doodlebugs.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28# Just collect your family And quickly lead the way... #
0:30:28 > 0:30:35They'd say, "You know so-and-so's street? Four houses were absolutely destroyed," etc, etc.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40You got, filtered-through, what WAS happening, but...
0:30:40 > 0:30:43I don't think I wanted to SEE it.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46Glad I hadn't.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49There ARE advantages.
0:30:49 > 0:30:55In one of the major disability initiatives of the 20th century,
0:30:55 > 0:31:01the wartime Government employed a third of a million disabled people for the war effort.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06NEWSREADER: A remarkable triumph over infirmity is that of John Irwin.
0:31:06 > 0:31:11a 34-year-old Northumberland farmer who has been blind from birth.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17He does most of the principle jobs on the farm without help. Milking is one of many.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23If there's a man who ever deserved a smoke, that man is blind John.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28Babs Yule was called up for war work, firstly working on the land.
0:31:28 > 0:31:35It WAS like a Land Girl. The first bit I did was singling a small field of sugar beet -
0:31:35 > 0:31:41all by myself - and it was a very hot summer, then. That was 1940.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49The Government brought many of the new disabled workers into the munitions factories.
0:31:49 > 0:31:57BABS: I was in Marconi's from May '43. They decided I should go in the instrument part.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01As soon as I got there, they had to find me something to stand on
0:32:01 > 0:32:05so's I could reach the bench and the machines.
0:32:05 > 0:32:13I found it an interesting little job. Later on, I heard that they regarded me as the best riveter they'd had.
0:32:13 > 0:32:18Our firm was particularly good at taking disabled people.
0:32:18 > 0:32:25They were particularly un-good at the pay! But they were very good to work with otherwise.
0:32:25 > 0:32:31It was difficult for a blind physiotherapist. There was a prejudice then.
0:32:31 > 0:32:38But, you see, I was trained BEFORE the war with that intent, that that was going to be my life's work.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43We had LOTS of casualties from London. Bad casualties.
0:32:43 > 0:32:50Mrs Clark was a young mother, had four children. Going shopping, she got the children ready.
0:32:50 > 0:32:56The baby was in the pram. She heard a doodlebug, gathered her children,
0:32:56 > 0:33:00bent across the pram, and the house was hit.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08She had a broken back.
0:33:08 > 0:33:16Paralysed from the waist downwards. I went to give her massage to keep the circulation going in her legs.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21She told me what a good husband she had. One day, in the grounds, he stopped me and said,
0:33:21 > 0:33:30"Will my wife ever walk again? Will she sit in a chair?" So that she could do her vegetables by the sink.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Then one day, one of the children came in and said,
0:33:34 > 0:33:38"Daddy slept with Rita last night."
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Rita...was a lady friend.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45And I heard later that Mrs Clark had died,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49and, they thought, of a broken heart.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54Ah, here we are.
0:33:54 > 0:34:00This is me walking when I'd just got my leg. Very tentative.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Bit faster, there.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06A few weeks later.
0:34:09 > 0:34:16A bit later again, getting quite quick. This is all in the house we were evacuated to. My bombed house.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21I didn't get depressed because, primarily, I thought of Douglas Bader.
0:34:21 > 0:34:27He became my shining light for the future. "Well, hell, here's a bloke with TWO artificial legs,
0:34:27 > 0:34:34"and he flies. He's fighting the Germans in the RAF. If he can do that, I'll certainly be OK. Great!"
0:34:37 > 0:34:42The story I've always like about Bader - I think I've got it right -
0:34:42 > 0:34:47was that he was shot down and became a prisoner-of-war in Germany.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51They got so worried he'd be trying to escape, they took his legs away.
0:34:51 > 0:34:58At some stage, a new pair of legs were dropped to him by parachute with the agreement of the Germans.
0:34:58 > 0:35:03But they put springs in the ankles, so if he had to parachute again,
0:35:03 > 0:35:07he'd get a cushioned landing. Rather nice!
0:35:07 > 0:35:14Though disabled before the war in a flying accident, Douglas Bader was a disabled war hero,
0:35:14 > 0:35:18a fighter ace who flew with artificial legs.
0:35:18 > 0:35:25I then had a lovely picture of artificial legs as sort of shiny suits of armour, a Bionic Man touch.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30I thought, "Get one of those - cor, you won't be able to catch me up!"
0:35:30 > 0:35:36It psychologically boosts you and keeps you going. Till I GOT one and it was a bit slower than that!
0:35:36 > 0:35:40HE LAUGHS
0:35:43 > 0:35:45- CHURCHILL:- Never, in the field of human conflict,
0:35:45 > 0:35:50was so much owed by so many to so few...
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Many were disabled on active service -
0:35:54 > 0:35:59people like Bill Simpson and Jack Toper, who were, as they put it,
0:35:59 > 0:36:01"mashed, boiled or fried" in action.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06Boiled was quite good. Mashed - all chewed up by bits of metal and so on.
0:36:06 > 0:36:13Fried, certainly, yes. Flame was always involved in it. It was very, very quick flash flame.
0:36:13 > 0:36:19It was over Germany, Monchengladbach, on August 31, 1943.
0:36:19 > 0:36:25We were over the target. Usual thing - bombs had gone, then were we attacked by fighters.
0:36:25 > 0:36:33One engine was shot out immediately. We held a sort of confab on the intercom, whether to bail out -
0:36:33 > 0:36:36cos the plane was in a bad state -
0:36:36 > 0:36:43or whether to press on and try to get back to England. Naturally, the majority wanted to get back.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47On May 10, 1940, the Germans started to move.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52I was stationed in a single-engine bomber squadron.
0:36:52 > 0:36:59We had to attack a vast column of advancing German armour going into Luxembourg.
0:36:59 > 0:37:06We had to make two approaches to attack it, and while this was happening, we were being hit.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09When the plane did come to a halt,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13one of the crew I pushed through the hatch.
0:37:13 > 0:37:20I then got the blast from the oxygen bottles which were lying up along the side of the fuselage.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25They hit me, and I suppose that's the reason I got so badly singed.
0:37:25 > 0:37:33I then got out onto the wing. I'd read that the thing to do if you're on fire is roll over, which I did.
0:37:33 > 0:37:40And then a lovely Cockney voice running towards me, one of a few soldiers on anti-aircraft duty,
0:37:40 > 0:37:45his first words were, "Don't worry, mate, you're back home now." And mate was very glad to be back home!
0:37:49 > 0:37:54The engine caught fire, and so I had to try and find somewhere to land.
0:37:54 > 0:38:01We made a forced landing, but by then the aircraft was virtually out of control. I just had to thump down.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05The moment we stopped, the whole thing went right up.
0:38:05 > 0:38:12The observer and the air-gunner pulled me onto the wing, or I wouldn't be here.
0:38:12 > 0:38:19World War II proved a turning-point for disabled people. The "useless" disabled were now useful.
0:38:19 > 0:38:25They worked in the factories, they served in the war. Many were created BY the war.
0:38:25 > 0:38:31A fundamental shift in attitudes towards disabled people occurred...
0:38:31 > 0:38:32for now.