Pavilion Blues: Disability and Identity

Event

Sunday 15 March 2015 to Sunday 20 November 2016

Organised by Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

© Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

From 1916 to 1920 over 6,000 military amputees were treated at the Royal Pavilion, Dome and Corn Exchange in Brighton. To commemorate this centenary, the story of the Pavilion Military Hospital for limbless soldiers is being told in the current exhibition, Pavilion Blues: Disability & Identity, at Brighton Museum.

After the closure of the Indian Military Hospital in the early months of 1916, the Royal Pavilion was refitted to provide specialist treatment and rehabilitation to servicemen who had one or more limbs amputated. The treatment could take between three to six months in order to ensure the patients' wounds had healed sufficiently for the men to return to civilian life.

This interval in the history of the Pavilion Estate marks an important point in the history of the First World War and changing attitudes towards those disabled through military service. Through the exhibition, Brighton Museum aims to reinstate this forgotten story in the history of the Royal Pavilion and connect with some of the families whose parents and grandparents were treated there.

For more information, please contact Jo Palache at jo.palache@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

More Information

brightonmuseums.org.uk