Many Veterans leave the Armed Forces with highly debilitating conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety disorders.  Their problems can remain masked for years, and they and their families may be struggling to deal with matters at home. Combat Stress is able to provide two integrated services to meet Veterans' needs:

    ~   Dedicated, short-stay clinical treatment 
    ~   Community outreach just where it is most needed

Combat Stress is currently working with almost 300 Veterans of the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. And demand for their unique services continues to rise, with 1,257 new cases referred to them last year alone – and not just from recent conflicts.

Clients have served in every military and peace-keeping operation that British Forces have been involved in since the Second World War, including Korea, Aden, Cyprus, the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Bosnia, the Gulf, Sierra Leone – and now the Middle East.

Since the Charity's formation in 1919, Combat Stress has helped almost 100,000 Veterans, drawn from all branches and all ranks of the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force, as well as the Merchant Navy and Allied Services.

We are very pleased to add a link from this site to the website of Combat Stress where full details of the Charity's activities can be found.  Click here.

  Cathedral offers support to
ex-service personnel

A new “drop in” meeting point for former British service personnel and their families has been launched at Peterborough Cathedral. The sessions take place on the first Tuesday of each month, from 10am until 12 noon, in a reserved room in the Cathedral Close.

The idea came about following press reports of the sermon preached by the Dean, The Very Revd Charles Taylor, on Remembrance Day in 2008.  In it he had emphasised the necessity of demanding proper long-term care for service men and women.

“After that I was visited by a Northern Ireland veteran and his wife who had been, and still are, going through a considerable amount of trauma as a result of his experiences,” he said. “This man explained that he was able to take a respite week a couple of times a year at a Combat Stress home; but this was some distance away, and what he felt was really needed was somewhere he could go more frequently to talk with fellow veterans … soldiers don’t open up easily to outsiders.”

The launch session at the Cathedral in June exceeded expectations. There were several invited guests including the Mayor of Peterborough and the Station Commander from RAF Wittering, as well as a number of ex-service families. “One thing that came across was the need for the families as well as the troops themselves to have mutual conversation and support,” said Charles Taylor.

Local representatives of the charity Combat Stress have supported the project and the city’s branch of John Lewis has helped with publicity.

Any ex-service personnel or their families are welcome to drop in.

History of Combat Stress 

Combat Stress was founded in May 1919, just after the First
World War.  The charity's original name was the Ex-Servicemen's Welfare Society.  This subsequently changed to the Ex-Services Welfare Society and then again to the Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society.  Today it is better known as Combat Stress. 

When the charity formed, it was ahead of its time.  The prevailing attitude to mental welfare was, by today's standards, primitive, even barbaric.

Those who suffered from mental breakdown during their Service life received little or no sympathy.  Indeed, during the First World War, if it led to failure to obey orders, death by firing squad was always a possibility.

At the end of the War there were thousands of men returning from the front and from sea suffering from shell-shock.  Many were confined in Mental War Hospitals under Martial Law – with the risk of being sent on, without appeal, to asylums.

But the charity's view was that these men could be helped to cope with their condition through a rehabilitation programme.  Work was essential to masculine identity; many doctors believed that work was excellent therapy; and work also provided men with financial security.  And so, for many years, Combat Stress ran employment schemes that created real work opportunities for Veterans.

Combat Stress today 

Much has changed over the years.  Today there is a far better understanding that psychological wounding is an occupational hazard of Service life – and the Service men and women who react to the traumatic events they have experienced with some form of stress are suffering a perfectly normal response.  They have no reason to be ashamed.

Since 1919, Combat Stress has helped almost 100,000 Veterans cope with their suffering.  With 4,000 active cases under our care today – many diagnosed with chronic conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – we are very busy.  To help Veterans rebuild their lives, the charity provides:

• A nationwide community outreach service 

• Access to specialist clinical treatment at one of our short-stay residential centres in Ayrshire, Shropshire and Surrey

Ninety years of dedicated care 

On 12 May 2009 Combat Stress marked its 90th anniversary with a Service of Commemoration, Celebration and Rededication in Westminster Abbey.  It was attended by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, together with 1,000 other supporters. 

Key Milestones