UK military genealogy specialists, Forces War Records, have now transcribed 100,000 medical records of British First World War soldiers as part of a project to make them available online.
The website’s ‘Military Hospitals Admissions and Discharge Registers WW1’ collection made its debut in October 2014, with 20,000 records out of 1.5 million having already been transcribed.
Forces War Records says: “There’s still a way to go, but we’re on course to have the bulk of the collection digitised for public search by the end of the year 2016.”
Large numbers of doctors signed up to offer their services when the First World War broke out in 1914.
At the start of the conflict, the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) numbered just 9,000 men; by the end, it boasted a strength of 133,000. More than nine million dead or wounded troops passed through army hospitals.
Forces War Records points out that almost 7,000 RAMC men lost their lives in the course of their duties. Over 6,500 were decorated for bravery, seven of them receiving the Victoria Cross.
Two army medical officers are among only three double recipients of the VC, Britain’s highest gallantry award.
The grave of Arthur Martin-Leake at High Cross, near Ware in Hertfordshire. He was awarded the VC in the South African War and again in November 1914 while serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Belgium (Photo: Centenary News)
For more about a doctor’s life on the Western Front, read the full blog by Forces War Records in our articles section.
Details of how to research the ‘Military Hospitals Admissions and Discharge Registers WW1’ collection, can be found here.
Information & archive images supplied by Forces War Records
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News