The Trick Cyclists: Neuropsychiatry and the Management of Aerial Warfare in the Royal Air Force, 1939-1945

Lynsey Shaw Cobden of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford will discuss neuropsychiatry in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.

TALK OUTLINE
From the Second World War, the British public and historians have enjoyed a romantic relationship with the flyers of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The courtship began in the summer of 1940, when the Battle of Britain was fought in plain view of the villages of southern England. The rakishly-angled caps, silken cravats, and winged insignia of the superhuman ‘Brylcreem boys’ provided a tangible link to the war in the air. The actions of the wartime air force have been narrated and documented ever since but comparatively little is known of the effects of the war on the minds and bodies of flying personnel. With an academic and popular historiography that prioritises dash, technology, and operations, it is easy to overlook the human element of the air war. While flying personnel were ‘heroes’, they were also men who were subjected to significant physical danger and psychological strain in the course of their perilous duties. The RAF had recognised this and mobilised specialist medical knowledge to negotiate the inevitable burden of mental disorders and personnel wastage.

This lecture will assess the administrative and therapeutic duties of the RAF neuropsychiatric division in the Second World War. The expertise of neurologists and psychiatrists was enlisted to prevent and treat the mental disorders of flying personnel. To meet these key objectives, the neuropsychiatric division undertook important responsibilities in the areas of personnel selection, service discipline, medical research, and the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions. This lecture will therefore assess how neurologists and psychiatrists responded to many of these challenges and contributed to the management of the war in the air.

LOCATION AND TIME
Please note that this lecture will be held at the Headquarters of the Royal Aeronautical Society at No. 4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ at 18:00PM on Thursday 29 October 2015.

ABOUT LYNSEY SHAW COBDEN
Lynsey Shaw Cobden is an historian of modern medicine, with specific interests in the medical aspects of flight, air power, and modern warfare. She recently completed her doctorate entitled: ‘Neuropsychiatry and the Management of Aerial Warfare: The Royal Air Force Neuropsychiatric Division in the Second World War’, at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford. This work was supervised by Professor Mark Harrison and funded by the Wellcome Trust. Lynsey has lectured widely on aspects of her research to diverse audiences, including psychiatrists at Harvard University and serving senior officers of the US Army Medical Department. She hopes to publish this work as a monograph, which will be available in an open-access format. She is now beginning a career as an Historical Researcher at the Air Historical Branch and hopes to continue her research into the medical history of the Royal Air Force.

RAF MUSEUM RESEARCH PROGRAMME
The Trenchard Lectures in Air Power Studies form part of the RAF Museum's Research Programme for 2015. This programme also consists of the First World War in the Air Lunchtime Lectures and other events such as conferences. More details can be found in our leaflet.

For more details about the RAF Museum’s research programme, please email our Aviation Historian, Ross Mahoney at [email protected]

The Trenchard Lectures in Air Power Studies are held in conjunction with the Royal Aeronautical Society and the War Studies Department at the University of Wolverhampton.