William Hay, Esq. Disabled Politician

By Unknown engraver - Google Books, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25372958

 

Over the last few posts, I have discussed historical figures who happened to be disabled. Another factor uniting them all was that they were the leaders of their countries or empires. So, this week I have decided to mix it up a bit. I present to you the tale of William Hay.

Who was William Hay?

William Hay (1695-1755) was an English politician who served as a member of Parliament for Seaford, in East Sussex. Hay had a difficult upbringing, losing his father the same year he was born, while also losing his mother and grandparents before he turned six. He was taken in by his aunt and went on to matriculate from Christ Church, Oxford, when he was sixteen. He was then admitted to the bar, however, disaster struck! While studying, he contracted smallpox, which not only disfigured his face, but also seriously damaged his sight. This was not the only thing which made him stand out physically. He was described as several centimetres short of five feet tall and was also hunchbacked.

These defects did not prevent him from holding several judicial positions and eventually being elected to the House of Commons in 1734, where he remained until his death. (I assume they let him out occasionally). During his time there, he introduced bills to aid in the relief and employment of the poor. He also held the position of 'keeper of records in the Tower' (of London). I think it is fair to say that he had a successful career.

His Attitude Towards Disability

So, William Hay was a hunchbacked dwarf who was a member of parliament in the 1700s. Interesting, but is that enough to warrant an entire post on him? I don’t think so. It is one of his written works which is the fascination. In 1754, Hay wrote Deformity: An Essay, describing what it was like living as a disabled person in 18^th Century England. This book is historically significant as very rarely do we get a personal account of what living with a disability was like. Usually we hear about disabled people from someone else’s perspective, so it is tricky to establish the truth.

Throughout the book, Hay emphasises the challenges he faces due to his height. He states that he avoids crowds for fear of receiving an elbow to the back, or even being trampled on. Amusingly, he even refers to instances when the person walking alongside him has accidentally knocked the hat off his head. Hay also takes it upon himself to advise other ‘deformed’ people on how to live their lives. Some of which is quite good. For instance, if someone is incapable of work that requires plenty of physical activity, e.g. joining the army, they should instead focus on jobs of the mind, e.g. playwright, poet, writer, adviser etc. Sounds like good advice to me! 

However, some of his advice was not so good. He felt that ‘deformed’ people should dress in plain cloths, and avoid gathering in groups, so as not to look more ridiculous than they already were. He also suggested that being ugly was a good thing, as beautiful mythological people such as Narcissis were driven demented by their looks. So inspiring!

Hero or Villain?

As you can probably tell at this point, William Hay is a challenging role model for people with disabilities. On the one hand he managed to have a successful political career and publish a book about his life with a disability. While on the other hand, he held views regarding disabled people that would be deemed unacceptable today. One issue that some modern disability activists have with Hay is that he uses self-deprecating humour to try to fit in with his peer group. It is felt that disabled people should not have to belittle themselves to be accepted. However, I disagree. I feel a sense of humour is important when trying to ingratiate oneself into a group, regardless of disability. 

As Hay was living in the 18^th Century, he had to act differently to how we would expect him to act now. Back then, physical difference was amusing. In fact, it had been for hundreds, if not thousands of years. There are several theories as to why this was. One which I particularly like is Simon Dickie’s suggestion, referenced in Lund’s article, that by laughing at the deformities of others, it helped relieve people’s fears about their own bodies’ inevitable decay.

While his views are not politically correct today, I think William Hay can still be seen as a disabled role model, for everything he achieved in his lifetime.

If you want to learn more about William Hay, I recommend you listen to the BBC's 'Disability: A New History' episode on him. I have included the link in the Further Reading below.

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

Next week I will examine what can go wrong when royal families intermarry.

 

                                                                                                       The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Adelson, Betty M., The Lives of Dwarfs: Their Journey From Public Curiosity Toward Social Liberation. (Rutgers University Press, 2005). pp. 60–1.

BBC, Disability: A New History, Episode 5: Finding a Voice https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01snxyf Accessed: 11 September 2020.

Brooke, John, "Hay, William (1695–1755), of Glyndebourne, Suss". History of Parliament Online (1754-1790). Accessed: 11 September 2020.

Cruickshanks, Eveline, "HAY, William (1695-1755), of Glyndebourne, Suss". History of Parliament Online (1715-1754). Accessed: 24 August 2020.

Hay, William, Deformity: an Essay, Volume 1 (London, 1754), Google Books.

Lund, Roger. “Laughing at Cripples: Ridicule, Deformity and the Argument from Design.” Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 39, no. 1, 2005, pp. 91–114. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30053590. Accessed 11 September 2020.

Podewils, Karla, (ed. Markle, Bradley), ‘Hay’s DEFORMITY, AN ESSAY’ Enlightenment and Disability,  https://enlightanddis.wordpress.com/spectacles-of-deviance/physical-deformity/william-hay-deformity-an-essay/ Accessed: 11 September 2020.

Taylor, Stephen, Hay, William (1695–1755) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/12739 Accessed: 11 September 2020.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) was the 32^nd President of the United States. He was in office for four terms and led the U.S. through The Great Depression and World War II. However, it is less well known that he was a wheelchair user.

 

Disability and Rehab

While vacationing at his family cottage in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1921, FDR fell off his yacht. For a few days after this the power in his legs deteriorated. It reached the point where they could no longer bare his weight. He was initially mis-diagnosed as having a blood clot in his lower back. However, a few days later he was told he had infantile paralysis/ poliomyelitis, better known as polio. FDR’s initial response was (and I’m paraphrasing here) “INFANTile paralysis!! But I’m a 39 year old man!’. However, when the doctor informed him that having a weak immune system made him susceptible, he accepted the diagnosis. The polio left FDR paralysed from the waist down.

FDR was an incredibly determined man. He set his mind on making a full recovery from his ailments and neglected politics for a few years. He exercised constantly and maintained a good spirit. He tried various methods to improve his condition, of which swimming and hydrotherapy were the most effective.

Rare Photo of Roosevelt in a wheelchair

The Cover Up?

Looking back on it now, I’m sure you must be thinking that there is no way Americans of the 1930s were open-minded enough to elect a disabled person to the highest office in the land. Well…. apparently, they were. There has been a long running tale that FDR managed to keep his disability hidden from the public from 1921 until his death in 1945. Admittedly, he made arrangements with the media, prohibiting them from photographing him in his wheelchair, or being maneuvered in a way that made his impairments obvious. I mean, the paparazzi would never invade someone’s privacy to get a story, right? Anyway, his disability was public knowledge before his election to president even occurred. In July 1931, almost two years before FDR took office, Liberty magazine with a circulation of 2.5 million, ran the article “Is Franklin D. Roosevelt Physically Fit to Be President?”. It stated,

 

“It is an amazing possibility that the next President of the United States may be a cripple. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of the State of New York, was crippled by infantile paralysis in the epidemic of 1921 and still walks with the help of a crutch and a walking stick. Yet, by all the political signs he will emerge as the Democratic nominee.”

 

The fact that he ‘still walks with the help of a crutch and a walking stick’ indicated to the American people that he had recovered to a certain extent and perhaps further improvement was possible. The same article shows FDR standing barelegged wearing the metal braces which held him in an upright position. He used these braces when standing at podiums delivering speeches. He had his son and his aides essentially carry him from place to place in a way that made it seem as though he was walking. FDR tried to conceal it, but it was a known fact that he had problems.

  

His Charitable Work

Not too long after he was afflicted with polio, FDR was told by his friend, George Foster Peabody, that a young man, Louis Joseph, had been cured of polio, by the “healing waters” of Warm Springs in Georgia. Therefore, in 1924, FDR headed to Warm Springs in the hope of improving his condition, as the water was pure and rich in minerals. He continued to visit throughout his life causing the resort to grow in popularity. However, in 1926 Warm Springs came into financial difficulty and was on the verge of closure. Therefore, FDR invested a vast amount of his wealth into buying the resort and turning it into a rehabilitation centre for people with polio. The purchase of the resort alone before renovation cost $200,000.

Warm Springs was different from a hospital, or anywhere else where polio patients were treated. The centre was owned and managed by the people with polio who attended it. They hired the doctors and therapists and gave instructions as to what was required of them. The attendees also designed and developed their own appliances and equipment. Furthermore, Roosevelt personally developed a program of water therapy, functional training, and practical exercises. As well as this, he invented exercises, muscle charts, and equipment, while also designing wheelchairs. What’s more, he oversaw centre activities, any construction, and even paid the bills for the first two years!!

FDR began to raise money for Warm Springs with the first of his annual Birthday Balls in 1934. He encouraged people to make donations to help the centre and in the first year raised 1 million dollars. In 1938 the money also went to FDR’s new founded National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which is now known as March of Dimes. The continued Birthday Balls went on to fund the Salk vaccine for polio.

 

 

It is clear that Franklin D. Roosevelt did not let his disability prevent him from being a good president and making positive change in the world.

If you are interested, there is a documentary on this topic called "Franklin D. Roosevelt - The Wheelchair President".

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

You may have noticed that so far, all my historical figures posts have been about powerful men, who led empires or countries. Have no fear! Next week I will be looking into…. a British politician. Slight improvement.

 

                                                                                                  The Wheelchair Historian    

 

Further Reading

Berish, Amy, ‘FDR and Polio’, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum https://www.fdrlibrary.org/polio Accessed: 4 September 2020.

Clausen, Christopher. “The President and the Wheelchair.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), vol. 29, no. 3, 2005, pp. 24–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40233058. Accessed 19 Aug. 2020.

Gallagher, Hugh, ‘FDR's Cover-Up: The Extent of His Handicap’, January 24, 1982  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1982/01/24/fdrs-cover-up-the-extent-of-his-handicap/9e3f26df-c0a4-4cb6-9852-754fd54d3cae/?utm_term=.ab6c1b2c3a9c Accessed: 4 September 2020.

Ott, Tim, 'How Franklin Roosevelt’s Health Affected His Presidency’, Jan 8, 2019 https://www.biography.com/news/franklin-roosevelt-health  Accessed: 4 September 2020.

Porter, Tom, ‘How FDR kept his partial paralysis a secret from the American public — even while he was on the campaign trail’ May 10, 2019, 4:10 PM https://www.businessinsider.com/how-fdr-hid-his-paralysis-from-american-public-even-while-campaigning-2019-4?r=US&IR=T Accessed: 4 September 2020.

Pressman, Matthew, ‘The Myth of FDR’s Secret Disability’, July 12, 2013 https://ideas.time.com/2013/07/12/the-myth-of-fdrs-secret-disability/  Accessed: 4 September 2020.

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany

This week I will be examining an emperor with a dodgy arm, who had a bad relationship with his mother. Hold on…. have I already done this one? Let me check my notes…. nope. Apparently, this happened to more than one guy.

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany from 1888 to 1918. He was also the last Emperor of Germany, as he led them into The Great War of 1914-1918, which did not end well for them. What impact did his disability have? Let’s find out!

 

Disability! What Disability?

Wilhelm II was born Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert in Berlin, on 27 January 1859. His mother was Vicky, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. His father was Prince Friedrich Wilhelm (‘Fritz’) of Prussia.

During Wilhelm II’s birth, things went horribly wrong. Firstly, when Vicky went into labour, Fritz sent a letter via regular post to the doctor! Unsurprisingly, by the time the doctor received word of the labour, Vicky was in a bad way. Secondly, as Vicky was a royal, there was strict etiquette regarding access to her body. This meant doctors had to work underneath her skirts. Finally, it was discovered that Wilhelm was in the breach position (essentially facing the wrong way). This endangered the lives of both mother and baby. To remedy this, the doctor used forceps to grab Wilhelm’s left arm, twist him around and yank him out. He was thought to be dead, but was resuscitated and survived. In freeing Wilhelm from his mother, the doctor had severed the nerves in his left arm and neck. This is known as Erb’s palsy and resulted in paralysis of the left arm, as well as a shrivelled arm and hand.

 

Various ‘Treatments’ Wilhelm Underwent

Before I describe the various ways young Wilhelm was tortured (sorry, ‘treated’) for his disability, I feel some context needs to be given. Prussia was a very militaristic society. As such, men and particularly royalty were expected to be excellent soldiers and generals. A physical impairment does not really help in this regard. To make matters worse, Wilhelm had an English mother. Vicky was very progressive for her time and felt superior to the Prussians, seeing them as antiquated in their views. She knew she could change this as her husband was in line to be king. All she needed was a healthy son to follow him. Obviously, the crippled Wilhelm put an end to these plans.

Vicky wanted to do everything she possibly could to cure Wilhelm of his impairment. She was guided by the best scientific knowledge of the time. When Wilhelm was a few months old, doctors tied his right arm behind his back to force him to use his left. However, the arm was paralysed, so that didn’t work. When Wilhelm was a year old, they tried electromagnetic therapy on his arm. Yep! That’s right! They tried to Frankenstein his arm back to life. They also used a technique called ‘animal baths’. They would wrap a fresh animal carcass (usually that of a hare) around his arm in the hope that the warmth and vigour of the animal would revitalise the arm. This process was repeated on a regular basis for several years, without result.

His arm was not the only problem. The nerves in his neck were also damaged and from the age of four, his head began to twist and drop to one side. Wilhelm was forced to wear a ‘head-stretching machine’ for an hour a day to try to correct this. Vicky described the machine as consisting of

‘a belt around the waist to the back of which an iron bar is fixed. This bar leads up to the back to something which looks exactly like a horse’s bridle. The head is then fixed in this and positioned as desired by means of a screw which adjusts the iron bar’.

The doctors increased the amount of time he was to wear it, as they thought it was beneficial. All I can say is I’m glad I live in the 21^st Century. 

 

By Emil Rothe - https://www.europeana.eu/portal/sv/record/2048445/item_ZPRVUYLEM7EA3DOTPPMOPHI5J5DF6NGC.html?q=what%3A%22Bildung%2C+Schulwesen%22#dcId=1563795575820&p=2, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80624057

His Mental State

As you may imagine, Wilhelm was left traumatised by the treatments he underwent as a child. Attempts were made to hide the fact that he had a shrivelled arm. In photographs, he would cover up his hand, or rest it on an item like a sword to disguise the length discrepancy. His clothes were also tailored for this same purpose. He became Emperor of Germany at the age of 29, after his grandfather and father died in quick succession. Being displeased at the way his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I ruled, Wilhelm II wanted a more hands on approach. He therefore dismissed the great statesman, Otto von Bismarck, who had done so much for the German Empire and European stability. Wilhelm II wanted everyone in the world to know who he was. He advocated aggressive foreign policy to grow Germany’s power in the world. It appears he had an inflated view of himself, while also being reckless and irrational in his actions.

Wilhelm II had a desire to outshine Britain. This may have stemmed from the hatred of his mother for the way she treated him. In 1896, he congratulated a Boer commander for successfully defeating the British in battle. Furthermore, he started to build up the German navy to compete with the British navy. This led to an arms race which ultimately resulted in the First World War. I don’t think he thought things through properly. By giving Austria-Hungary support against Serbia after Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, he set off a chain of events that would lead to catastrophe. The royal families of Germany, Britain and Russia were all interlinked. Now that’s what I call a family feud!

 

 

Next week I will look at the American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

 

                                                                                                       The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Armfield, Julia, ‘Treating the Kaiser’s Withered Arm’, 28 February 2014 https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2014/02/treating-the-kaisers-withered-arm.html Accessed: 28 August 2020.

BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilhelm_kaiser_ii.shtml Accessed: 28 August 2020.

Biography.com, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm Biography’ https://www.biography.com/political-figure/kaiser-wilhelm Accessed: 12 August 2020.

Brignell, Victoria, ‘Dangerous disabled people II’ 7 January 2009 https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/crips-column/2009/01/germany-wilhelm-war-austria Accessed: 28 August 2020.

Mombauer, Professor Annika, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II: from early years to exile’, Updated Monday, 16th December 2013 https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/kaiser-wilhelm-ii-early-years-exile Accessed: 28 August 2020.

Owen, Jonathan, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II’s unnatural love for his mother ‘led to a hatred of Britain’’ Saturday 16 November 2013 01:39 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/kaiser-wilhelm-ii-s-unnatural-love-for-his-mother-led-to-a-hatred-of-britain-8943556.html Accessed: 28 August 2020.

Röhl, John C. G., ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II: A Concise Life’, (Cambridge University Press, 21 Aug 2014).

Starr Brown, Rebecca, ‘Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Britishness (And Left Arm)’, January 27, 2017 https://rebeccastarrbrown.com/2017/01/27/january-27-kaiser-wilhelm-ii-is-born/ Accessed: 28 August 2020.