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Civil Resettlement Units

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Main page Civil Resettlement Units, or CRUs, were a scheme

Contents created during the Second World War to help British Army
Featured content servicemen who had been prisoners of war (POWs) to
Current events return to civilian life, and to help their families and
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communities to adjust to having them back.
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Interaction 1 Background
1.1 Northfield Military Hospital
Help
1.2 No. 21 WOSB
About Wikipedia
Community portal 1.3 The Crookham Experiment
Recent changes 1.4 Special Reception and Training Unit
Contact page 2 Establishment of Civil Resettlement Units
2.1 Name
Tools
2.2 Staff
What links here 2.3 Programme
Related changes
2.4 Communication and publications about CRUs
Upload file
2.5 POW participation
Special pages The poster created to advertise
3 Validation
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 3 Validation CRUs during the Second World War
Permanent link
4 Legacy and related work
Page information
Wikidata item 5 See also
Cite this page 6 References

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During the First World War and shortly afterwards, many psychiatrists including Sigmund Freud
Printable version
assumed that soldiers who had been captured were 'virtually immune' from psychological harm
Languages because they were at a safe distance from battle.[1] This was linked with the belief that shell shock
Add links might be a way of escaping from danger.[2] Around the time of the Second World War, this view
began to change. Psychiatrists and psychologists such as Millais Culpin and Adolf Vischer argued
that POWs were at risk of mental harm, and Vischer coined the term "barbed-wire disease" to
describe this condition.[1] Psychiatrists had been keen to look into these ideas, and the outbreak of
war gave them the opportunity to conduct research.[3] The 1929 Geneva Convention had changed
how POWs were dealt with by setting forth rules for prisoner exchange which made it possible for
POWs to be returned to their home nations before the end of the war.[4]

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.[5] 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 after the war.[3]

Northfield Military Hospital [edit]

Main article: Northfield Hospital
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POWs experiencing the most apparently severe difficulties on repatriation were treated at military
psychiatric hospitals such as Northfield Military Hospital. Psychiatrists Major Whiles and Alfred
Torrie noted that patients were often 'markedly resentful of everyone and everything.'[6]
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.[5]
No. 21 WOSB [edit]
Main article: War Office Selection Boards
Psychiatrist Major Wilfred Bion and psychologist Lieutenant Colonel Eric Trist 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.'[3] 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.[7]
The Crookham Experiment [edit]
At No. 1 RAMC 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, absenteeism, high
levels of sickness, and psychological disturbance.[3] 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
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home.[8]
Special Reception and Training Unit [edit]
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.[9] In November 1944, a pilot unit called No. 10 Special Reception and Training
Unit (SRTU) was set up in Derby. Wilson was selected to head this Unit as opposed to Bion, who
expressed his dismay in a letter to fellow psychiatrist John Rickman.[10] 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.[5]
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 to facilitate work
placements and visits.[5] Food was a particular concern of POWs, so it was table service was
provided rather than having men queue.
Establishment of Civil Resettlement Units [edit]
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 as CRU Headquarters and No. 1 CRU, and other
country houses across Britain were adapted for use as CRUs so that men could attend a Unit close
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 country houses across Britain were adapted for use as CRUs so that men could attend a Unit close
to where they lived.

Name [edit]

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" [thus] the expression "mental rehabilitation" or these words
separately shall not be used in conversation or in writing.[11]

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.'[12] In the end, the planners decided that 'the expressions
"resettlement" or "resettlement training" will be employed instead.'[11]

Staff [edit]

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 staff: POWs might not
have interacted with women for years, so these women staff were intended to help repatriates
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 become more comfortable in mixed company as well as to facilitate the running of CRUs.[5]

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 and Isabel Menzies Lyth, mathematician Harold Bridger, and military
officers Ian Dawson and Dick Braund.[13]

Programme [edit]

A "syndicate" 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.[14] 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.[5]

Communication and publications about CRUs [edit]

To inform POWs about the scheme as early as possible, information was distributed through the
British Red Cross and the officers of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, who
had access to POWs whilst they were still in prisoner of war camps.[15]

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

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 excitement of repatriation had subsided and POWs might begin to experience some frustration or
have questions.[5]

Many local or regional newspapers carried stories about local CRUs and the local men
participating in the scheme.[5] National newspapers also reported the creation of the CRUs, and on
12 July 1945, the King and Queen visited Hatfield, which generated significant news
coverage.[16][17][18]

POW participation [edit]

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.[5]

With the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the War Office planned for CRUs to accept
only Far East prisoners of war (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.[19] By the end of March 1947, more than 19,000 European POWs and
4,500 FEPOWs had attended a CRU.[20]

Validation [edit]

Major Adam Curle and Eric Trist 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.[14] Curle and Trist found that the "settled" men studied had

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 better social relationships than a civilian control sample. They argued that this demonstrated the
CRU's worth as a therapeutic community. 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.[14]

Edgar Jones and Simon Wessely have argued that the small sample size and the single location
studied limit the validity of the validation study.[1]

Legacy and related work [edit]

The principles and some of the methods devised for the CRUs were later adapted and applied to
European civilian refugees displaced by war.

Psychiatrist Tom Harrison has suggested that the CRUs were 'probably one of the first controlled
studies carried out in social psychology in the United Kingdom.'[6] The work conducted at the CRUs
contributed to the development of the concept and methods of therapeutic communities. 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 in 1947.[21]

See also [edit]

Demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War
Demob suit

References [edit]
1. ^ a bc
Jones, Edgar; Wessely, Simon. "A paradigm shift in the conceptualization of psychological
trauma in the 20th century" . Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 21 (2): 164175.
doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.09.009 .
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2. ^ Cohen, David (1991). "A war of nerves: Doctors once thought that soldiers suffering from shell
shock were simply malingering to escape the battlefield. A century studded with wars has given the
medical profession ample opportunity to realise its mistake" . New Scientist (1759).
3. ^ a bc d
Ahrenfeldt, Robert H. (1958). Psychiatry in the British Army in the Second World War.
Columbia University Press. Lay summary .
4. ^ Geneva Convention. Wikisource. 1929. Part IV: Termination of Captivity.
5. ^ a bc de fghi
White, Alice (2016). "Chapter Five: Settling down in Civvy Street". From the Science
of Selection to Psychologising Civvy Street: The Tavistock Group, 19391948 (PDF) (Thesis).
University of Kent. Lay summary .
6. ^ a b
Harrison, Tom (22 March 2017). Bion, Rickman, Foulkes, and the Northfield Experiments:
Advancing on a Different Front. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 9781853028373. Lay
summary .
7. ^ Group, British Medical Journal Publishing (16 June 1945). "Return from Stalag" . Br Med J. 1
(4406): 844845. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.4406.844 . ISSN 0007-1447 .
8. ^ Technical Memoranda No.13 "The Prisoner of War Comes Home" (Report). Directorate of Army
Psychiatry. 1944. Lay summary .
9. ^ Fortesque, Earl Hugh (26 July 1944). "Repatriated R.A.M.C. Personnel" . Hansard. Retrieved
22 March 2017.
10. ^ Vonofakos, Dimitris; Hinshelwood, Bob (1 January 2012). "Wilfred Bion's Letters to John Rickman
(19391951)Introduction" . Psychoanalysis and History. 14 (1): 81. doi:10.3366/pah.2012.0099 .
ISSN 1460-8235 .
11. ^ a b
Nichol, John; Rennell, Tony (4 September 2003). The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied
Prisoners of War in Germany 19441945. Penguin Adult. ISBN 9780141003887. Lay summary .
12. ^ Volunteering for CRUs: Notes for Military Advisory Officers (Report). Department of Army
Psychiatry. 1945. Lay summary .
13. ^ Trahair, Richard (1 June 2015). Behavior, Technology, and Organizational Development: Eric Trist
and the Tavistock Institute. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 9781412855495. Lay summary .
^a bc
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 14. ^ a bc
Curle, Adam; Trist, Eric; Wilson, A.T.M. (1990). "Transitional Communities and Social
Reconnection: The Civil Resettlement of British Prisoners of War" (PDF) . The Social Engagement
of Social Science: Volume I, The Socio-Psychological Perspective. University of Pennsylvania
Press. ISBN 0812281926.
15. ^ Lecture to SHAEF Officers' Course (Report). Department of Army Psychiatry. 1945. Lay
summary .
16. ^ "The King and Queen with Ex-Prisoners: Visit to Civil Resettlement Unit". The Yorkshire Post and
Leeds Mercury. 13 July 1945.
17. ^ "Resettling War Prisoners: Aids to Civil Life: The King and Queen at Hatfield". The Times. 13 July
1945. CS69681389 via Gale.
18. ^ "Army's Civil Resettlement: King and Queen Visit Hatfield House Centre". The Manchester
Guardian. 13 July 1945 via Proquest.
19. ^ Trist, Eric (2000). "Working with Bion in the 1940s: The Group Decade". In Pines, Malcolm. Bion
and Group Psychotherapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 24. ISBN 9781853029240. Lay
summary .
20. ^ Mackenzie, S. P. (2006). The Colditz Myth: British and Commonwealth Prisoners of War in Nazi
Germany. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199203079. Lay summary .
21. ^ Dicks, H. V. (14 October 2014). Fifty Years of the Tavistock Clinic (Psychology Revivals).
Routledge. ISBN 9781317587880. Lay summary .

Categories: British Army in World War II Psychiatric services Military psychiatry

History of psychiatry History of psychology

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