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Civil Resettlement Units, or CRUs, was a scheme created during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
by
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
psychiatrists to help
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
servicemen who had been
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
(POWs) to return to civilian life, and to help their families and communities to adjust to having them back. Units were set up across Britain from 1945 and later expanded to provide for
Far East Prisoners of War Far East prisoners of war is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe former British and Commonwealth prisoners of war held in the Far East during the Second World War. The term is also used as the initialism FEPOW, or as the abbreviation Far ...
(FEPOWs) as well as those who had been captive in European camps. By March 1947, 19,000 European POWs and 4,500 FEPOWs had attended a unit.
Background
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and shortly afterwards, many psychiatrists including
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
assumed that soldiers who had been captured were 'virtually immune' from psychological harm because they were at a safe distance from battle.
This was linked with the belief that
shell shock
Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...
might be a way of escaping from danger. Around the time of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, this view began to change. Psychiatrists and psychologists such as
Millais Culpin
Millais Culpin FRCS (6 January 1874 in Ware, Hertfordshire – 14 September 1952 in St Albans, Hertfordshire) was an English physician and psychotherapist.
He appears as a character in the ''Casualty 1907'' and ''Casualty 1909'' television serie ...
and Adolf Vischer argued that POWs were at risk of mental harm, and Vischer coined the term "barbed-wire disease" to describe this condition.
Psychiatrists had been keen to look into these ideas, and the outbreak of war gave them the opportunity to conduct research.
The 1929
Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conven ...
had changed how POWs were dealt with by setting forth rules for
prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange.
Geneva Conventions
Under the Geneva Convent ...
which made it possible for POWs to be returned to their home nations before the end of the war.
In September 1943, Lieutenant General Sir
Alexander Hood hosted an Army meeting at the Directorate of Army Psychiatry to discuss the repatriation of POWs, at which it was decided that British Army psychiatrists should investigate what difficulties POWs might experience on their return home, and how these difficulties might be dealt with.
As with much British Army psychiatry during the Second World War, work on rehabilitating POWs was headed by a group who called themselves the "Invisible College" and who formed the
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British not-for-profit organisation that applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was initiated in 1946, when it developed from the Tavistock Clinic, and was formally establ ...
after the war.
Northfield Military Hospital
POWs experiencing the most apparently severe difficulties on repatriation were treated at military psychiatric hospitals such as
Northfield Military Hospital
Hollymoor Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located at Tessall Lane, Northfield in Birmingham, England, and is famous primarily for the work on group psychotherapy that took place there in the years of the Second World War. It closed in 1994.
H ...
. Psychiatrists Major Whiles and Alfred Torrie noted that patients were often 'markedly resentful of everyone and everything.'
Psychiatrists suggested that these feelings could lead to civil unrest after the war if experienced by the significant number of POWs who would be returning.
No. 21 WOSB
Psychiatrist Major
Wilfred Bion
Wilfred Ruprecht Bion DSO (; 8 September 1897 – 8 November 1979) was an influential English psychoanalyst, who became president of the British Psychoanalytical Society from 1962 to 1965.
Early life and military service
Bion was born in Ma ...
and psychologist Lieutenant Colonel
Eric Trist
Eric Lansdown Trist (11 September 1909 – 4 June 1993) was an English scientist and leading figure in the field of organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.
Biography ...
conducted work at No. 21 War Office Selection Board (WOSB),
Selsdon Court Hotel, Surrey where they attempted to adapt officer selection methods to the purpose of selecting POWs who might be capable of returning to active service. The "officer reception unit" was intended to 'provide them with advice on military retraining and re-employment, and on other problems.'
Bion suggested that resettlement should use 'psychiatric machinery; but the machinery need not cause irritation by creaking' and so any programme for handling POWs should appear more military than medical though it should incorporate psychiatric treatment in a subtle manner.
The Crookham Experiment
At No. 1
RAMC
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
Depot at Boyce Barracks in
Crookham, psychiatrist Major
A. T. M. "Tommy" Wilson headed an experimental programme to rehabilitate repatriated medical personnel. The experiment ran from November 1943 to February 1944, and involved 1200 POWs undergoing a four-week programme of rehabilitation and training. POW problems included low
morale
Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...
,
absenteeism
Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation without good reason. Generally, absenteeism is unplanned absences. Absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance, as well as a breach of an implici ...
, high levels of sickness, and psychological disturbance.
Conclusions from the experiment were published in a memorandum titled ''The Prisoner of War Comes Home''. This document argued that most POWs were not mentally ill but were maladjusted, and required support on their return home.
Special Reception and Training Unit
In February 1944, the War Office agreed to establish a voluntary scheme to help POWs return to Britain based upon the Army psychiatrists' work. This scheme was announced in the House of Lords in July 1944. In November 1944, a pilot unit called No. 10 Special Reception and Training Unit (SRTU) was set up in
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
.
Wilson
Wilson may refer to:
People
* Wilson (name)
** List of people with given name Wilson
** List of people with surname Wilson
* Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender
* Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...
was selected to head this Unit as opposed to
Bion, who expressed his dismay in a letter to fellow psychiatrist
John Rickman. Bion believed that the psychological principles underpinning the CRUs, which built on his earlier work at Northfield, were underdeveloped and needed further refinement. However, the first group of POWs were imminently due to return to Britain from Germany, which is likely why Wilson was selected to lead the SRTU.
The SRTU pilot indicated to the Army psychiatrists that some changes were required before a scheme could be created on a larger scale. The "hutted camp" was too similar to a
stalag, so more luxurious accommodation should be provided in future, and the proposed six weeks was deemed too long and so cut to four weeks. Lectures were not very popular, but visits to workshops proved unexpectedly popular, so the team built connections with the
Ministry of Labour
The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...
to facilitate work placements and visits.
Food was a particular concern of POWs, so
table service
The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...
was provided rather than having men queue.
Establishment of Civil Resettlement Units
In March 1945, the War Office agreed for 20 Civil Resettlement Units to be created. In the spring of 1945, the CRU organisers made frantic preparations for the first large wave of POWs returning from Germany. They secured
Hatfield House
Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Ceci ...
as CRU Headquarters and No. 1 CRU, and other
country houses
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
across Britain were adapted for use as CRUs so that men could attend a Unit close to where they lived.
Name
The planning team who created the CRUs gave a great deal of thought to what they should be called. Based on the Crookham and No. 21 WOSB investigations, Army psychiatrists emphasised that POWs were very sensitive to accusations or implications that they were mentally "damaged." Based on this the Adjutant General
Sir Ronald Adam issued official instructions that:
The word "rehabilitation is frequently taken to connote a process of mental or physical reconditioning made necessary as the prisoner of war is looked on as abnormal or even a "mental case" hus
Hus or HUS may refer to:
Medicine
* Hemolytic-uremic syndrome, a disease characterized by haemolytic anemia, kidney problems and a low platelet count
People
* Hus (surname)
* Hus family, an 18th-century French dynasty of ballet dancers and ac ...
the expression "mental rehabilitation" or these words separately shall not be used in conversation or in writing.
One of the participants at the SRTU had also strongly recommended that the planners change the name of the Unit. He stated that 'I would not call it a Special Training Unit to any man... I think the word "training" should be changed.' In the end, the planners decided that 'the expressions "resettlement" or "resettlement training" will be employed instead.'
Staff
Each unit had a Commanding Officer and Second-in-Command (who were military men), a Medical Officer (usually a psychiatrist, though often this was not acknowledged to the participants attending), Vocational Officer, Ministry of Labour Liaison and a Civil Liaison Officer (a social worker, usually a woman, trained in psychological methods).
A large proportion of the other CRU staff were
Auxiliary Territorial Service
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...
staff: POWs might not have interacted with women for years, so these women staff were intended to help repatriates become more comfortable in mixed company as well as to facilitate the running of CRUs.
The team at No. 1 CRU, the CRU Headquarters, consisted of
Tommy Wilson as the head psychiatrist and Medical Officer, Colonel Richard Meadows Rendel as Commanding Officer, psychologists
Eric Trist
Eric Lansdown Trist (11 September 1909 – 4 June 1993) was an English scientist and leading figure in the field of organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.
Biography ...
and
Isabel Menzies Lyth
Isabel Menzies Lyth born Isabel Edgar Punton (1917–2008) was a British psychoanalyst in the Melanie Klein, Kleinian tradition, known for her work on unconscious mechanisms in institutional settings.
Life
Born and raised in Scotland, Her m ...
, mathematician Harold Bridger, and military officers Ian Dawson and Dick Braund.
Programme
A "
syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest.
Etymology
The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French language, Frenc ...
" of 60 volunteers (in four batches of 15) arrived each week at the CRU. They listened to introductory talks from the Commanding Officer and Medical Officer. After this, the programme was entirely voluntary except for an interview when a participant left the CRU. Participants had the opportunity to attend workshops, visit nearby workplaces or have work-experience placements. They were able to attend group discussions, meet with the Vocational Officer to talk about careers, and meet with the Civil Liaison Officer to talk about social or relationship concerns.
Whist drives and dances were held at the CRUs, bringing the local civilian population to the Unit with the intention of helping civilians and repatriated POWs to interact and adjust to one another. Men were not required to wear their military uniforms except for the pay parade when they were given their salaries.
Communication and publications about CRUs
To inform POWs about the scheme as early as possible, information was distributed through the
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with more ...
and the officers of the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
, who had access to POWs whilst they were still in prisoner of war camps.
A leaflet called ''Settling Down on Civvy Street'' was issued to POWs after they had been back in Britain for a week or two. This timing was intended to catch their attention when the initial excitement of repatriation had subsided and POWs might begin to experience some frustration or have questions.
Many local or regional newspapers carried stories about local CRUs and the local men participating in the scheme.
National newspapers also reported the creation of the CRUs, and on 12 July 1945, the
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
visited Hatfield, which generated significant news coverage.
POW participation
All of those who attended the CRUs were volunteers. Those from the earlier studies were compelled by the Army to attend, but were due for discharge or release on completion of their course.
With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the War Office planned for CRUs to accept only
Far East prisoners of war Far East prisoners of war is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe former British and Commonwealth prisoners of war held in the Far East during the Second World War. The term is also used as the initialism FEPOW, or as the abbreviation Far ...
(FEPOWs), based on the assumption that the CRUs would not be able to manage the combined number of POWs from Europe and the Far East and that the FEPOWs were more in need of the service. Wilson and Rendel felt that European POWs should not be denied the opportunity to attend, and went to lengths to expand the programme where possible and make space for both groups. Rendel and Wilson were removed from heading the programme as a result. By the end of March 1947, more than 19,000 European POWs and 4,500 FEPOWs had attended a CRU.
Validation
Major
Adam Curle
Charles Thomas William Curle (4 July 1916 – 28 September 2006), better known as Adam Curle, was a British academic, known for his work in social psychology, pedagogy, development studies and peace studies. After holding posts at the University ...
and
Eric Trist
Eric Lansdown Trist (11 September 1909 – 4 June 1993) was an English scientist and leading figure in the field of organizational development (OD). He was one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London.
Biography ...
conducted a study to evaluate the efficacy of CRUs. They found that 26% of POWs who attended a CRU demonstrated "unsettlement" compared with 64% of POWs who did not attend a CRU.
Curle and Trist found that the "settled" men studied had better social relationships than a civilian control sample. They argued that this demonstrated the CRU's worth as a
therapeutic community Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residential ...
. However, they also noted that the results might have been affected by more "settled" men being more likely to attend a CRU in the first place.
Edgar Jones and Simon Wessely have argued that the small sample size and the single location studied limit the validity of the validation study.
Legacy and related work
The principles and some of the methods devised for the CRUs were later adapted and applied to European civilian refugees displaced by war.
CRUs represent one of the first controlled experiments in
social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...
.
The work conducted at the CRUs contributed to the development of the concept and methods of
therapeutic communities Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residential ...
. Many of the staff of No. 1 CRU had worked on WOSBs, and their collaborative work on these two schemes resulted in them coming together after the war to establish the
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British not-for-profit organisation that applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was initiated in 1946, when it developed from the Tavistock Clinic, and was formally establ ...
in 1947.
The archives of the
Tavistock Institute
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a British not-for-profit organisation that applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was initiated in 1946, when it developed from the Tavistock Clinic, and was formally establ ...
, which include extensive materials on the psychological principles behind and creation of the CRUs, have been catalogued and donated to the
Wellcome Library
The Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of med ...
where they can be ordered and viewed.
See also
*
*
Demob suit
A demob suit was a suit of civilian clothes given to a man on his demobilisation from the British armed forces at the end of the Second World War. Although the suits were of good quality, the need to clothe millions of demobilising servicemen led ...
References
{{Reflist, 30em
British Army in World War II
History of mental health in the United Kingdom
Military psychiatry
History of psychiatry
History of psychology