One hundred years ago, at the height of the First World War, a hospital was set up to care for Scotland's injured and limbless soldiers returning from the trenches. Established by a pioneering Scottish surgeon from Glasgow University Sir William Macewen and Princess Louise, Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, it became a national institution, touching the lives of tens of thousands. Today it's still going strong and is known simply as Erskine. With unprecedented access to Erskine's homes and and its archives, Beyond The Battlefield: 100 Years Of Erskine tells the story of this remarkable place and of the people who live and work here. It features accounts of the very first patient from 1916, war hero Corporal James Ritson, whose arm was blown off in a trench in Gallipoli and dipped in a bucket of tar to cauterise the wound; to veterans of the Second World War; through to those wounded in Britain's recent conflicts, including Northern Ireland; the Falklands and Afghanistan, including GB rower and ex-paratrooper Scott Meenagh. It tells the story of how Erskine has pioneered the treatment and rehabilitation of Scotland's wounded, and how with the help of Clydeside shipbuilders, the very first residents became experts in making their own artificial limbs.
