Ms Bullough took assembly and drew many parallels between the mental health challenges so evident in society today, especially amongst young people. She explained the psychological victims of war are as old as war itself. Deuteronomy, the Greeks and Shakespeare all tell us this. But it wasn't until the first world war that science began to understand this properly and essay the kind of diagnoses that are familiar to us today. Even during the war, some medics still thought that "shell shock" or "war neurosis", as it was known, was down to the physical impact of exploding military ordnance.  But slowly another theory began to form: that the peculiar symptoms exhibited by huge numbers of soldiers (80,000 in the British army alone) were borne of emotional, not physical, stressors – in particular, the almost suicidal nature of the frontline campaign, the close proximity to death, the hideous sight of watching a friend – or enemy – meet a particularly gruesome end. Our understanding of mental health has developed and continues to do so as we look to support those whose lockdown experience has exacerbated psychological and emotional difficulties. 

It is important to reflect on the past, especially on Armistice Day, as it helps us meet the challenges of the present with deeper insight and understanding.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.