User:Simon Harley/Gunnery Officer

Deafness

Before the advent of proper protective headgear damage to hearing was a real occupational hazard. In August, 1907, Lieutenant Frederick C. Halahan of H.M.S. Dreadnought was granted three months on half pay "to undergo special treatment for impaired hearing". On 12 January, 1908, he was surveyed at the department of the Medical Director-General and found "Fit for active Service; but slightly deaf in left ear (a common condition in Gunnery Officers) but no claim (unless convenient) for qualified service can be based upon his physical condition". Halahan not unreasonably "Requested to be employed away from heavy gun fire." The Second Sea Lord, Vice-Admiral Sir William H. May, was not sympathetic, however, and "directed that this officer should be informed that he will be placed on H.P. [half pay] until he reports himself fit to serve."

In May, 1911, Captain The Honourable Robert F. Boyle of H.M.S. Duke of Edinburgh wrote in his report on Lieutenant Edward O. B. S. Osborne, "being deaf greatly handicaps him" but that "With more experience sh^d make a good officer in the higher ranks".