🏥 New treatment
Guttmann taught staff to turn patients regularly to prevent bed sores, and he treated the whole person. His aim was not just to keep patients alive but to help them live active lives.
Consequences of War and the End of Empire, 1944-62 » Ludwig Guttmann and the Paralympic Games Movement
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B8, Key topic 3
- How people with spinal injuries were treated before 1944
- What Sir Ludwig Guttmann did at Stoke Mandeville
- How the Stoke Mandeville Games grew into the Paralympic Games movement
- What changed, and what did not, for disabled people between 1944 and 1962
Disabled people were often pitied, hidden away or seen as a burden. After the Second World War, attitudes began to shift. This lesson looks at one doctor and one big idea that helped: that disabled people could train, compete and work.
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Unlock This CourseSpinal injuries before 1944
A spinal injury damages the spinal cord and can leave a person paralysed. Before the 1940s doctors thought little could be done. Patients were often left lying in bed, and many died within weeks or months from infections and bed sores. Those who lived were usually expected to spend their lives as invalids, cared for by others.
Key terms:
- Spinal injury: damage to the spinal cord that can cause paralysis.
- Rehabilitation: treatment and training to help a person regain independence and, where possible, return to work.
- Paralympic Games: the international sports competition for disabled athletes.
Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville
Ludwig Guttmann was a German Jewish neurologist (a doctor who studies the nervous system). He left Nazi Germany in 1939 and settled in Britain. In 1944, at the request of the British government, he opened a spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, partly because of the casualties expected as the war went on.
🏹 Sport as therapy
He used sport to build strength, confidence and a sense of purpose. Patients, many of them wounded ex-servicemen, played sport from their wheelchairs. Guttmann also wanted them trained for jobs so they could return to work.
From Stoke Mandeville to Rome
On 29 July 1948, the day the London Olympic Games opened, Guttmann held the first Stoke Mandeville Games on the hospital grounds. Sixteen competitors, fourteen former servicemen and two former servicewomen, took part in archery. In 1952 ex-servicemen from the Netherlands joined in, and the Games became international. In 1960 a Games for disabled athletes was held in Rome, after the Olympics, with about 400 athletes from 23 countries. It is now counted as the first Paralympic Games. Guttmann was knighted in 1966.
Why attitudes and opportunities changed
- War: injured service people returned home and the public felt the country owed them help.
- Government action: ministers asked Guttmann to open the centre, and the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 and the NHS in 1948 showed the state taking more responsibility.
- One determined person: Guttmann's methods got results, and he was a tireless campaigner.
- Publicity: competitions showed the public what disabled people could do. Seeing athletes rather than patients began to change minds.
The limits of change
Change was real but limited. The Stoke Mandeville Games began with people who had spinal injuries, not all disabled people. Many people with learning difficulties still lived in large institutions (long-stay homes and hospitals) in 1962. The 1944 Act set a quota (a share of jobs that employers of 20 or more had to give to registered disabled workers) but it was weakly enforced. Many people still treated disability with pity rather than as a matter of rights. Legal rights came later, in the 1970s.
Drawing it together, 1944-62
Between 1944 and 1962 Britain moved from seeing many disabled people as hopeless cases towards believing in rehabilitation, work and sport. New laws, the NHS and Guttmann's centre all helped. Continuity remained: low expectations, institutions and little legal protection.
Common mistakes
- Saying Guttmann started the Paralympics in 1948. The 1948 Games were for 16 people at Stoke Mandeville. The Rome Games of 1960 are counted as the first Paralympics.
- Writing about Guttmann only as a doctor. Examiners want you to explain why his work changed attitudes.
- Saying attitudes changed completely by 1962. Use words like "partly" and give limits.
Exam-style question
This is a Paper 2, Section B type (c) question. Cover at least three aspects, weigh change against continuity, and reach a judgement. In the exam you choose one of two (c) questions.
How far did opportunities for disabled people change in the years 1914-62? [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944
- Ludwig Guttmann and Stoke Mandeville
You must also use information of your own.
Model answer
Opportunities for disabled people changed a good deal between 1914 and 1962, but the change was uneven and incomplete.
In 1914 there was little help. The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 had led to people with learning difficulties being sent to institutions, and people with spinal injuries were often left to die or to live as invalids. The First World War brought a first change, because about 41,000 men lost limbs and the country felt it owed them help. The King's National Roll in 1919 encouraged employers to take on disabled ex-servicemen. However, this depended on goodwill, not law, and between the wars the institutions stayed.
The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 was a bigger step. It created a register of disabled people, required employers of 20 or more people to give 3 per cent of jobs to registered workers, and reserved some jobs, such as lift attendants, for them. For the first time the law backed disabled people's right to work. Even so, enforcement was weak and many disabled people did not register.
Attitudes changed through Ludwig Guttmann. In 1944 he opened the spinal injuries centre at Stoke Mandeville, where patients were treated actively and trained, and sport became part of rehabilitation. His Stoke Mandeville Games began in 1948 and became international, leading to the Rome Games of 1960 with about 400 athletes from 23 countries. This showed the public what disabled people could achieve. Guttmann's methods, including turning patients and training them for jobs, meant many could return to work rather than die within months. Yet his work mainly helped people with spinal injuries, so it left out many other disabled people.
The NHS, which began in 1948, also gave disabled people free treatment. But many people with learning difficulties were still kept in institutions in 1962.
Overall, there was significant change, but most of it came after 1944, not before. Opportunities improved for ex-servicemen and for people who could work or train, and public attitudes began to move from pity towards respect. Yet rights were not guaranteed, enforcement was weak and many disabled people were still excluded or shut away. So the change was real, and Guttmann was its most important driver, but it was only partial by 1962.
What lifts it to the top level: it covers more than three aspects across the whole period, uses facts beyond the bullets, weighs change against continuity, and reaches a judgement justified by who benefited.
Exam tip
Cover the whole date range in order. If your answer only deals with 1944 onwards, you have not answered "1914-62".
Recap
- Before 1944 people with spinal injuries were often left to die or live as invalids.
- In 1944 Guttmann opened the Stoke Mandeville centre, using rehabilitation, job training and sport.
- The 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games grew into the Rome Games of 1960, counted as the first Paralympics.
- Attitudes changed because of war, government action, Guttmann and publicity, but change was limited by 1962.