Subjectivities in the Aftermath: Children of Disabled Soldiers in Britain After the Great War

One of the most underrepresented groups in trauma studies is children. Children had to cope with the psychological and physical disabilities of their fathers and the socio-economic dislocation caused by war. In this chapter, Michael Roper has found a vein into the subjective experiences of second generation war victims through interviews with British men and women, many of them working-class, who grew up in the households of disabled Great War veterans. Children became “containers” for their parents’ traumas, and they suffered their own psychological damage when their mothers and fathers projected their pain and frustration on to their children. Further, children witnessed the upending of gender roles as they saw their fathers become dependent on their mothers, and even their sons and daughters, for not only economic security, but also the most basic daily needs.