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Wilfully and With Intent: Self-Inflicted Wounds and the Negotiation of Power in the Trenches

When Canadian soldiers went to war in 1914, they could not have anticipated the horrors that awaited them on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Many coped through drink, song, and friendship; others were unable to take the constant strain. In the panic of battle, some men turned and ran, deserting their units at the front. Others never returned from the hospital or from leave. Many tried to “stick it out”, breaking down with shell shock or neurasthenia. A less studied group both in Canada and the international literature are those who chose to intentionally injure themselves to escape life at the front. This paper uses official military records, medical files, hospital records, and personal letters and diaries from Canadian and British archives to examine self-inflicted wounds in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. It argues that self-mutilation was an aspect of the larger struggle for power in the trenches between officers and men—an act of defiance that posed a direct challenge to the exclusivity of military authority. It argues that while the number of Canadian soldiers who maimed themselves was small, they posed a significant problem for those who purported to hold a monopoly on power at the front.