1935-6.]. 8vo, pp. [ii] blank, 36, [2] blank, with a number of half tone illustrations and photographs; some spotting along central stapled gutter, with some rusting of staples and thus slight staining, otherwise generally clean and bright; stapled as issued in the original blue card wrappers, upper cover lettered in gilt, spine and outer margins somewhat sunned; otherwise good. First edition of this fascinating and powerful short autobiographical account by Alan Nichols (1889-1959), who lost both hands, the lower part of his arms and his sight during a training accident on September 4th 1916. Having previously been wounded in the legs whilst fighting on the Aisne in 1914, at the time Nichols was a Bombing Instructor at South Shields, an instantaneous fuse was accidentally inserted into a charge as opposed to a time fuse. His colleague Sergeant Sullivan was also severely injured and died of his wounds later that day. Nichols injuries were catastrophic, and surgeons at the time noted over 500 other wounds caused by the fragments of the charge and barricade. He also lost a lung, had two ribs removed, and lost his hearing in one ear. The short account, some seventeen years after his accident, was written by Nicols to pay particular tribute to the work of Sir Arthur Pearson (1866-1921) and his team staff and volunteers at St. Dunstan’s Hostel for Blinded Military Personnel and Sailors based in Regent’s Park during WWI. Pearson, the noted newspaper publisher, had founded the charity in 1915, as he himself had lost his sight due to glaucoma. There, the wounded were provided a varied programme of care and training to enable them to reconstruct their lives and learn to adapt to their new situation and disability. ‘Training consisted of Braille, typewriting, knitting, basket-making, mat-making, and boot repairing: carpentry, poultry-farming, shorthand and typewriting, telephone operating, and massage; and to-day men from St. Dunstan’s are scattered in all parts of the Empire, efficient in these trades and professions’ (p. 15). Nichols himself was trained as a typist and was fitted with aluminium hands, with articulated fingers, and successfully passed his examinations. He later moved to the West Country and became the representative for St Dunstan's covering Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, and then to Portslade, near Brighton. In 1934 he appeared in the 1934 film ‘Forgotten Men: The War as it was’ directed by Norman Lee.
Pearson was created a baronet in 1916 in recognition of his services to the blind, and the charity remains to this day, now known as Blind Veterans UK. In 1919 he published his own account ‘Victory over Blindness: How it was won by Men of St. Dunstan’s’.