1916

First war-wounded arrive at Britain’s Star and Garter Hotel, an elegant resort of mid-19th century. Through efforts of Sir Frederick Treves, field surgeon in the Boer War and discoverer of the Elephant Man, it became Star and Garter Home for permanently disabled soldiers, esp. paraplegics. Following fund-raising efforts of the British Women’s Hospital Committee, headed by actress May Whitty, the rebuilt home opened in 1924.(Cohen, 132ff.). “Disabled men’s cheerfulness was anything but ‘natural.’ It attested to a resolute masculinity distinguished by the control of emotions; it reflected great courage. . . . The disabled demonstrated the essence of masculine perseverance, independent of physical strength. They represented manhood as nineteenth-century Evangelical reformers had imagined it, an expression of inner moral substance” (141, 143). “At the Star and Garter, sadness remained individual, and grievances private. Those who openly aired complaints faced expulsion” (145). “Reporters who expected the worst could have found it. However, stories of depression and bitterness found no place in narratives of cheerfulness. That was the way visitors – and a number of patients – wanted to represent the Home’s ‘inner life’” (147).