Disturbing WWI footage reveals devastating effects of shell shock on soldiers

Uncontrollable shaking, terrifying nightmares and severe convulsions were among the most devastating symptoms suffered by the many First World War soldiers who suffered shell shock.

By the end of the war, more than 80,000 men who had endured the horrors of battle were struggling  to return to normality.

And here, disturbing footage compiled by British Pathé film archivists and released to MailOnline today, brings home the terrifying reality that for many the war never really ended.

At the time, most shell shock victims were treated harshly and with little sympathy as their symptoms were not understood and they were seen as a sign of weakness.

But at Newton Abbott's Seale Hayne in Devon, the approach was very different due to the revolutionary approach of a doctor called Arthur Hurst, an army major, who believed he could cure every shell shock victim....