Series
War Office: First World War Representative Medical Records of Servicemen and Servicewomen
Catalogue reference: MH 106
What's it about?
MH 106
The records in this series are a representative selection of several types of medical records from various theatres of war. MH 106/1-2078 consist of admission and discharge registers from hospitals, casualty clearing stations, field ambulances,...
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- MH 106
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Title (The name of the record)
- War Office: First World War Representative Medical Records of Servicemen and Servicewomen
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1910-1926
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Description (What the record is about)
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The records in this series are a representative selection of several types of medical records from various theatres of war.
MH 106/1-2078 consist of admission and discharge registers from hospitals, casualty clearing stations, field ambulances, an ambulance train and a hospital ship. Digital images of these records can be searched online through our partner website. Records from Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital dating from 1910 can also be found here.
MH 106/2079-2384 consist of sets of medical case sheets and medical cards grouped variously by disease, wound, hospital and regiment. They were selected to illustrate the diversity of diseases contracted, injuries received and treatments prescribed. These are predominantly records of servicemen, with a small proportion (approximately 1.5%) relating to servicewomen.
MH 106/2385-21389 are volumes relating to the use of the original collection of medical records (of which the rest of MH 106 is a sample) during their period of use by the Ministry of Pensions. They include registers and volumes documenting the provenance and use of the original collection.
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Note (Additional information about the record)
- Catalogue descriptions for MH 106/2079-2384 were enhanced as part of two projects: one financed by the Wellcome Trust (2017–2020), which included cataloguing descriptions of treatment, and one subsequently undertaken by volunteers supported by the Friends of The National Archives.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- War Office, 1857-1964
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 2389 volume(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Subject to 75 year closure
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Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
- Records within this series were brought together by the Medical Research Committee and the British Museum during and immediately after the 1914 to 1918 War for use in statistical studies of the treatment for injuries sustained, and diseases contracted, by British troops. The records were later used by the Ministry of Pensions, which inherited them, and subsequently by the War Pensions Branches of its successor departments, to verify claims for war disability pensions. Some records with later creation dates appear in this series; these are thought to have been created by the Ministry of Pensions rather than part of the original work done by the Medical Research Committee.
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
- The records in this series are a representative selection of the original collection and were prepared after the destruction of the 1914-1918 War Medical Records. The destroyed Medical War Records were sent for pulping between April and July 1975, and filled 16,524 sacks, weighing 275 tons. The surviving sample weighs 2½ tons.
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Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- The original studies made on these records were published in T J Mitchell and G M Smith History of the Great War based on Official Documents: (Medical Services) casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War (1931).
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C10949/
Catalogue hierarchy
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War Office: First World War Representative Medical Records of Servicemen and Servicewomen