A reply about the WWI Medal cards which might interest you all. -------- Dear XXXX Thank you for your email and for your concern. I trust this explains the situation regarding the WW1 medal cards: In 1985, the Public Record Office, now The National Archives, began microfilming the alphabetical card index to the First World War Army medal rolls. The front of the cards was microfilmed, with the originals remaining in Ministry of Defence (MOD) custody. The National Archives now makes that index available to the public in microfiche here at Kew and also via our website online http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ The MOD now has no further administrative use for the cards, and so they and we have offered the original cards to a number of institutions, museums etc. So far, none of the institutions approached has wished to take the cards, largely on account of the huge transfer and storage costs (and set of course against the fact that almost all the information they contain is available online). The cards are contained in 143 cabinets, each 5' 10" tall / 14" wide / 2' deep, each weighing around 175 kg. The reverse side of the index cards has not been copied as the vast majority of them are blank. A very small percentage has something written on the reverse, and in some, but not in all cases, this was the address to which the medals were sent. Sampling has found soldiers' addresses on less than two cards in three hundred and the resources required to identify and extract that small percentage of cards from within the total collection (5-6 million cards) cannot be justified. Notwithstanding the incompleteness of the First World War soldiers' records due to World War 2 bombing, in many cases that same home address will be found within the man's service or pension documents preserved at The National Archives, or indeed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website http://www.cwgc.org The MOD will therefore shortly destroy the cards, this being the only realistic option. I am sorry that this is probably not the reply you will have hoped to receive, but I hope that this explanation will at least help you to understand the reasons behind the decision. Yours sincerely Paul Sturm Public Services Development Unit -----
The problem: 1. TNA has filmed the front of all the cards. 2. Only 1 in 300 has data on the reverse. 3. That data could be immensly valuable, and should be saved. 4. There are 5-6 million cards. A solution? 5. I know that my uncle's card has something on the back, because "PTO" is written on the front! 6. It should therefore be possible for the films to be scanned fairly quickly to find the others marked "PTO". 7. The full name & service number of these could be noted. 8. As all the cards are filed alphabetically, it should be comparatively easy to identify the relevant ones, and discard the rest. IF sufficient interest could be aroused (probably among people able to get to TNA and/or Hayes, Middx.), it should not be too difficult a task to extract and record this potentially valuable data. Just a thought. Tony Eames (in Devon!) SoG 003101 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.7.1 - Release Date: 09/03/2005