By Sarah Butler, with interviews by Megan Mann

Sadly, one of the lesser known causes of dual sensory impairment is injury in wartime. All the disabled veterans from the First World War have now died, but there are many people, both soldiers and civilians, who remain affected by the Second World War.

Young men and women are still being left with disabilities following action in Iraq or Afghanistan. The nature of warfare, and their injuries, may have changed to some extent, but living with deafblindness remains as challenging as ever.

The interviews which follow came about through Sense’s work with older deafblind people, providing support including practical advice, training for their carers, and forums where they can meet others with similar impairments.

Perhaps the most notable fact about Muriel, Bob, George, John and Ken is that once the war was over they rejoined civilian life and simply got on with it. Like millions of people across Europe, they were expected to knuckle down and rebuild the country they had fought for and there was little or no support for any impairment they had suffered.

Ken, for example, worked as an engineer in the Colonial Service in Africa and the Far East. George worked in the dairy industry until he retired. Bob worked as a motor distributor, working his way up to parts manager: ‘learning all those vehicle parts led to me having a job to go to when I was demobbed: being in the army changed my life.’

Muriel and George, and many other veterans like them, now also receive considerable support from St Dunstan’s, a charity for visually impaired ex-service men and women of all ages. At its main centre near Brighton, young men and women who have lost their sight in Iraq and Afghanistan pick up their lives in the company of older veterans who have been living with their impairment for decades.

Craig Lundberg is one of these young servicemen. He was hit in the chest by a grenade in Iraq and lost his sight. On being sent to St Dunstan’s he was alarmed at the thought of being surrounded by much older people, but soon realised that he had a lot in common with them and that they could be an inspiration. He remembers, ‘This guy came over with his wife and says “What do you want to do with your life?” I said “I don’t really know, I haven’t been blind for that long, I don’t really know what I can do,” and he goes, “Well, I set up my own physiotherapy clinic. I’ve had a great life: I’ve got a beautiful wife, we come here all the time, I’ve got kids and grandkids, so just keep your chin up and don’t worry about it, it’ll all come right in the end”. Craig took him at his word, and has set up his own business, as well as playing for the England blind football team.

Ray Hazan, services manager at St Dunstan’s, lost his sight, most of his hearing, and his right hand in 1973 when an IRA parcel bomb he was holding blew up. He was a young man, newly married and with his first child on the way. At first, he says, he missed his eyes most, followed by not being able to hear properly. Now though he’s not sure he wants to see again, but he’d love to have his hand back. ‘The only thing I feel bitter about is that the injury stopped me doing things with my children.’

Ray has noticed that older people who lose their sight gradually ‘can often be apprehensive and feel that they’re the only ones in their position, after a week’s rehabilitation, though, they’re changed, confident and realise that there is still potential in life.’ If you lose all your sight in one go, as Ray did, he says ‘you have to start again learning to read and write, walk, lay your clothes out. Once I accepted that I was back to being a child again in some ways, I treated it as a game.’

As the nature of conflicts change, and medicine advances so that more people survive serious injury, the impairments sustained by service personnel change, although combatants’ senses are always vulnerable (think Admiral Nelson). In the First and Second World Wars there were many amputations. In the Second World War spinal injuries were common. In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers’ protective armour usually keeps their body safe when improvised explosive devices (IEDs) go off nearby, but they often sustain severe injuries to their brain and exposed body parts. The blasts can create closed head injuries, whose effects may not show until many years later.

Recent research reported by Mark Townsend in The Observer revealed that ‘more than two-thirds of British troops returning from Afghanistan suffer from severe and permanent hearing damage,’ the problems being caused by ‘the intensity of the conflict in Helmand and its close-combat fighting, roadside devices and the noise of low-flying coalition aircraft.’ How many people noticed this shocking statistic, though?

Even less well-known is the development of so-called less lethal weapons: designed to temporarily incapacitate, some of these weapons intentionally target people’s sight and hearing. In the wrong, or inexperienced hands, there is great concern that less lethal weapons will cause lasting damage to people’s senses.

In one way, nothing has changed: even when personnel are issued with ear protection, they often choose not to use it, making the difficult but understandable decision that they prefer to be able to hear what’s going on around them, as it may be what keeps them alive. It seems as though there will be many more veterans with sensory impairments needing our support in the decades to come.

Countless civilians lose their sight and hearing in wars. They may be recorded as ‘collateral damage’ during the war, or more likely, years after a conflict has ended, they’ll step on a mine or undetonated cluster bomb which will blow their life apart.

This August the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions comes into force. The UK, which used to be a major producer, and which used these anti-personnel weapons in the Falklands, Kuwait, Iraq and former Yugoslavia, has signed and ratified the treaty. The US, Russia, China and India have not.

Sources of support

Support from Sense

If you, or someone you know of has a dual-sensory impairment and requires help please contact Sense’s information team:
Tel: 0845 127 0060 | Email: info@sense.org.uk

St Dunstan’s

St Dunstan’s supports blind people who have served in the UK Armed Forces, whether veterans in their nineties or young men and women still in their twenties.

It provides rehabilitation, helps with housing, benefits claims, sports and social activities, and is a community of people with a shared background. Most St Dunstaners live independently but people needing more support can live at the Ovingdean centre.

St Dunstaners must have served in the UK Armed Forces or during the Second World War in the Merchant navy or the Polish Forces under British Command, and meet St Dunstan’s ophthalmic criteria, after a change in the rules their sight loss no longer needs to have been caused by war service.

If you know of someone who might qualify as a St Dunstaner contact St Dunstan's:
Tel: 0800 389 7979 | Website: www.st-dunstans.org.uk

Action on Hearing Loss

Action on Hearing Loss have a leaflet, ‘War pensions and priority health treatment for veterans’, available online.

The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (Veterans: UK) handles pensions and compensation, and offers information and support: Helpline: 0800 169 2277

It’s there for ‘anyone who has served in HM Armed Forces, even just for a day.’

References

‘Disabled veterans: from amputees in the Civil War to SCI in the Iraq war’, Jeff Burley, www.disaboom.com, downloaded 14 July 2010

‘Two-thirds of Afghan war veterans are suffering from hearing damage’, Mark Townsend, The Observer, Sunday 20 December 2009

‘A modern approach to noise-induced hearing loss from military operations’, Deafness Research UK, December 2009, www.deafnessresearch.org.uk

www.landmineaction.org, a charity which works to protect civilians from the effects of conflict.
‘Identification and control by UN member states of weapons designed to cause blindness and/or deafness’ Colin Bennett, Australia, September 2007, http://palmeira.org.uk/perthdbi2007/Paper.pdf

Veterans supported by Sense

The men and women who tell their stories below are deafblind veterans of the Second World War. These veterans’ hearing was damaged during their war service, although they weren’t all aware of it at the time. They lost their sight later, often due to age-related conditions such as macular degeneration and cataracts. There are many thousands more veterans like them.

Muriel Dennison, born in 1919

Muriel joined an anti-aircraft company in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in 1941 and worked on radar all over England. Her hearing was damaged during the war, she thinks because of working close to the anti-aircraft guns, although she didn’t realise what was happening at the time: ‘I never thought about it at all, even when I had to go to the hospital because of my hearing loss I didn’t connect it with anything like that, I just thought it was something that happened as I was getting older.’

It wasn’t until fairly recently that Muriel found out that she could receive help because her hearing loss was caused by her war service. She didn’t qualify for a war pension, but did receive a one-off payment.

For the last 23 years Muriel has also had a visual impairment caused by macular degeneration and cataracts. ‘I manage fairly well, I think. I manage better than some people do. I think it’s because it’s been so long and it was gradual, it didn’t happen all of a sudden.’

Muriel has also received help from St Dunstan’s: ‘I went for a week’s rehabilitation, which was marvellous. Since then I’ve been for another week to learn mobility. They’ve lent me a scanner, and a typewriter to learn touch typing.’

Support from Sense

Alison Asafu Adjaye, a specialist older deafblind person’s access worker with Sense has worked with Muriel since the beginning of 2009. When they first met, Muriel was finding it difficult to get to the hospital for her audiology appointments because the trip involved catching two buses, and her mobility is restricted, so Alison set up home audiology visits for her. Alison has been able to resolve a number of practical issues, and to provide equipment. She has also trained the staff in Muriel’s home in deafblind awareness.

Bob Miller, born in 1915

Bob was 25 and the Manager of a greengrocer’s shop when he was called up in 1940. In the army he was responsible for maintaining gun batteries. `I didn’t know anything about vehicles, and I had to be able to ride a motorbike, I went in to the battery commander and told him I didn’t know how to ride one, he said ‘Well, you’ve got a week to learn!’

Bob’s first active service was on D-Day, when he landed in France at the end of the first day of the invasion: ‘If anybody said they weren’t afraid I think they’d be telling lies. The worst part was landing on the beach, being shelled and mortared and everything coming at us.’

A German bomb landed close to Bob and exploded, leaving shrapnel in the back of his right ear. He was treated in a field hospital, only the most serious cases were evacuated, and carried on fighting, sporting a large bandage round his head. Despite this, and the incredible noise of gunfire all around him during the invasion, Bob’s hearing was fine when he was demobbed.

Bob’s hearing loss developed in the 1980s: ‘I applied for a pension and they put it in writing that it was through the fault of the war. But it wasn’t bad enough to get a pension: they said “If it gets worse, apply again”, but by then they weren’t giving pensions.’

Bob now also has macular degeneration and says ‘my deafness has not affected me as much as my blindness.’ He receives good support in his sheltered accommodation: he has help with his pills in the morning, and if he needs it with his breakfast and making his bed: ‘although I keep on trying to do it myself.’

Vista, a charity that supports people with sight loss in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (www.vistablind.org.uk), provides Bob with talking newspapers, and run regular outings. Bob also attends a local Sense forum for older deafblind people.

George Walter, born in 1917

‘I was always told you don’t cry when you start school, and I don’t think I’ve cried since.’

George joined up in January 1940 when he was 22 years old. ‘I was a firing point instructor and you can’t wear earplugs because you’ve got to be head to head with the man, in conversation with him, and hear the officer, and you’ve got cannons on the right, cannons on the left, Bren guns in the middle. The recruits only have to go through it once, but we had to go through it every time, and it was all day. At night your ears used to ring, that’s when it (George’s hearing loss) started.

I only went to the medical officer once (about my hearing). He didn’t do anything. I thought it was temporary. (After the war) I knew I didn’t hear as well as other people but I just soldiered on.’

George has macular degeneration and cataracts, and Charles Bonnet syndrome causes him to see things that aren’t there. He is greatly supported by St Dunstan’s. ‘I had a week in Sheffield for rehabilitation and training, and it was a busy week but they did treat us well. They’ve given us three weeks’ holiday, we paid, but they collected us from the door and took us to Brighton. That’s a big help.’ They’ve also received a number of aids from the organisation.

Support from Sense

• George receives support and advice from a Sense outreach worker.
• He attends a Sense Forum: ‘People come and give us little chats and we meet people.’
• He also recently took part in a Sense consultation about the government plans for an older society.

Ken Barrett, born in 1924

Ken joined the navy in 1942. His service took him along the coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean protecting convoys. He returned to Europe for D-Day, and afterwards joined a minesweeper.

‘In the navy they didn’t provide any protective clothing. We were always subjected to gunfire. Different guns have different noises and some affected you more than others, especially anti-aircraft guns, the Bofors, they had a horrible crack. If you were behind the gun you didn’t feel it so badly, but if you were exposed on the upper deck when they were firing, that’s when it really affected you.’

In 1945, near Thailand, they came under attack from the Japanese: ‘Unfortunately there was a Bofors gun firing within three metres of my head and it went on for at least half an hour, and believe me it was agony, the pain in your ears was terrific. I knew then there was something wrong with them.

We were seven ships and only one had a doctor on board. We had what was called a sick bay tiffy, who was a nurse and he was useless. I couldn’t report it to anybody, though I knew my ears were damaged.’

Ken’s hearing loss was assessed as 40 per cent, but ‘it wasn’t until the 1980s that it was made known that servicemen that had suffered injuries during the war could claim a pension, and when we claimed we didn’t get any back pay at all.’

After the war Ken began a long career with the Colonial service, which took him round the world. In 1990 he received the MBE for services to the Medical Research Council (for whom he worked in Gambia for 15 years) and to developing countries in West Africa.

Ken’s vision was damaged when he contracted river blindness in Sierra Leone, although he didn’t realise until seven years later. He was cured, but suffered permanent scarring of the back of his eyes. He now also has rapidly progressing macular degeneration in both eyes.

Support from Sense

• As well as being supported by a Sense outreach worker and attending our forum in Lincolnshire, Ken is also helped by a volunteer Guide Help.
• He has spoken at a conference on deafblindness which Princess Anne attended; helped produce an information video about a hand-held GPS system for independent mobility and recently spoke at a training day for Sense practitioners.

‘All I can say is that I’ve been really so pleased that I was introduced to Sense. It’s made me many many friends’, he says. `I’ve enjoyed the forums, meeting different people, people in the same position as myself. And the help from the staff at Sense is wonderful. It’s a bit traumatic when you lose your sight and also you’ve got hearing problems but Sense has helped me over that period. I’m very happy with my way of life now. I’ve settled that I’m deafblind, and that’s it.’

John Holland, born in 1924

John went into the navy as a cadet aged 16 ½. He joined a cruiser and was sent ashore to be commissioned before being appointed to the motor torpedo boats (MTBs) protecting the Arctic convoys. ‘They were a wonderful boat to be on … when you’re travelling all they can see of you is the bow wave.’

John’s boat was one of the first to arrive off the French coast on D Day. ‘All of a sudden one of the lookouts shouted “There’s a black cloud coming from aft.” I turned around and he was right. Right across the sky there was a black line, and they were aircraft. Each aircraft had a glider at the wingtips and one at the tail, each was towing three gliders. Our lights came on and they took position from us. … I can’t describe how many thousands went over.’

‘My loss of hearing was not apparent to me. It was due largely to small arms fire. We had twin Oerlikons, they were bad, and we had a number of machine gun turrets and six pound cannon … in certain places (on the boat) they nearly knocked you off your feet.’

Now John’s hearing is poor, and his sight has been damaged by giant cell arteritis. He has received some helpful support though: ‘We were given a course on the things you could do to assist yourself, things like folding your notes up in such a way that you know what’s what. We were offered things like speaking watches, magnifying glasses, all sorts of helps and hints and I think it was helpful in the early days.’

Support from Sense

• John receives support and advice from Sense outreach workers, and attends our forum in Lincolnshire.
• He was involved in creating a training video about the experiences of deafblind travellers for staff at Humberside and Manchester airports.

Burt Goodwin, born in 1928

Burt was only 12 when the Second World War began but lived in London throughout the Blitz. He joined the Navy as a seventeen-year-old and served on two tours of duty in the Mediterranean, working as a Signalman. Over the years he has worked as a newsagent and publican and now, with his wife Sheila, he runs the Monmouth Visually Impaired Group.

‘During the summer of 1940 I had a little Saturday job as a butcher’s boy and I can remember watching the battle of Britain over London, you know the smoke trails. You could actually hear the machine guns and canons going on the ground, it was amazing.’ During one of the worst nights of bombing in London Burt remembers, ‘London was ablaze, it was a firestorm. You could look over towards the east from Putney and the sky was completely red and it stayed that way for three nights.’

Burt spent his time in the Navy working onboard ships in the international waters around Haifa in Israel (then Palestine). He was a Visual Signalman, responsible for sending messages to allied ships from the deck. ‘The sun is very hot, it’s also very bright. You’ve got two ships coming along side by side and we’re signalling to each other with flashing lights. He’s got the sun behind him and if I’m looking at him I’ve got to look straight into the sun to try and read his light, and I think that’s where it all started’.

Burt has macular degeneration and cataracts and is hard of hearing. He has also developed Charles Bonnet Syndrome. “The only way I know I’m alive when I wake up in the morning is that I can feel my wife breathing next to me because I can’t hear anything. I wake up and don’t know if I’ve opened my eyes and if I’m in this world or the next.”

Support from Sense

• Burt receives support from a Sense outreach worker, who he sees regularly at home and at Monmouth Local Authority’s Deafblind Steering Group.
• Sense has arranged for a communicator guide to visit Burt to help him and his wife Sheila learn the deafblind manual alphabet.
• Burt, Sheila and one of their grandchildren went on holiday to Sense’s chalet in West Wales this August.
• Burt also gets a lot of support from St Dunstan’s, which among other things introduced him to soapstone carving.

William Roache, born in 1932

William Roache, better known as Ken Barlow from Coronation Street, describes how military training damaged his hearing but happily didn’t hold back his acting career.

I was in charge of a three inch mortar platoon and we were doing a training exercise with live ammunition. The drill is, when you drop the bomb, if it doesn’t go off, you are supposed to gently shake the tube. However, a guy I was training with pulled it upright and shot a live bomb straight up into the air. We had thirty seconds. It’s no good running as you don’t know where the bomb is going to land. You just have to get down and wait. Fortunately, it exploded about three hundred yards away. For three weeks I couldn’t hear anything, but slowly my hearing returned. I always knew though that I’d been left with a problem. I couldn’t hear for example, clocks ticking or people speaking in noisy atmospheres.

When did you find out the extent of your hearing loss?

It wasn’t until fifteen years later. I had a hearing test and they confirmed that I’d lost fifty per cent of my hearing during the training exercise. The extent of the loss shocked me.

How has it affected your life?

I live in a cotton wool world. Sometimes it feels quite cosy and I think I don’t want to hear everything. When I have tried hearing aids, I found I didn’t like the clattering of a knife and fork on a plate or a newspaper rustling. But there have been obvious downsides. When I can’t hear someone, they’ll often ask “What’s the matter with you?” My late wife used to say “Why don’t you tell people you are deaf?”, but I didn’t like to. I try and try to hear, I lean forward and it looks as if you are peering down ladies dresses! If I go to a ball and there is background noise it’s totally useless.

Has it been difficult to combine your hearing loss with your role in Coronation Street?

I couldn’t be in a better job. Everything is scripted, so I know what people are going to say and most actors speak with some clarity so it’s not a problem.

What storylines are you currently working on in Coronation Street?

Well for the fiftieth anniversary of the programme in December there is going to be a huge tram crash and many characters are going to die. So I will be heavily involved in that. There is also going to be a live episode. Also my own fiftieth anniversary on the programme coincides with it, so there is lots coming up.

© SJ Butler