War Hospital Magazines at Craiglockhart Hospital
The Hydra served as a hospital magazine for the soldiers at Craiglockhart Hospital. Launched in April 1917, it stopped publication in 1918. As Véronique Duché and Amanda Laugesen argue, home-made hospital magazines provided invaluble entertaiment when other reading materials were scarce. They also offered creative expression for invalid soldiers, or soldiers contending with the stress of lingering shell-shock.
The magazine adopted the name of the Lernaean Hydra slain by Hercules during his twelve labors: "The name of the journal will indicate what we wish its character to be: many headed – many sided" (The Hydra, Journal of the Craiglockhart War Hospital 1917; 1:5).
Soldier-poet Wilfred Owen served as one of the Hydra's editors, while his fellow soldier-poet Siegfried Sassoon published his poems "Break of Day" and "Base Details" in the December 1917 issue. In this working relationship, Sassoon and Owen helped to influence one another's work, as Sassoon provided feedback for Owen, while focusing his own work towards visceral and striking language.