'Temporary' at the top of documents?

[Harvey H]

Good morning fellas,

Just a quick question this morning. Doing some family history and on a few of the pages of my Great Great Grandfather's service record sheets it says 'Temporary' on some of them? There's about 30+ pages, maybe 40+ so I'm just going through them again looking for this notation of 'temporary' so there could be a few more instances than a just a couple.

Kindest Regards,

Harvey

I initially thought it meant the service number was temporary, but with it coming up again after without any mention of his service number I assume it's a general term. 

[MaxD]

His records show a number of hospital admissions and a confusion about which unit he was in at one time so these medical forms would have been filled in for some purpose while his real docs were not to hand. They are annotated 2/8th Sherwood Foresters which suggest that it was while with them that these were needed.  They then stayed in his docs alongside the "real" ones.

 

Max

Edited 15 February , 2020 by MaxD
typo corrected

[tullybrone]

Hi,

 

Even before I opened your post I guessed your queried temporary forms would be his medical records - B178.

 

The medical forms were supposed to be a contemporaneous record of a soldiers medical history from first medical to discharge but there are many occasions when a medical examination took place by a Doctor who did not have possession of a man’s original medical records. It is quite common to see a new B178 started with the word temporary written on the top - especially in relation to casualties. My gf was wounded in November 1914 and a new B178 was commenced on his arrival at Connaught Hospital and is endorsed “Temporary - ex BEF”. The temporary B178 would eventually be married up with the “master” original medical records.

 

Steve

Edited 15 February , 2020 by tullybrone

[Harvey H]

Thank you very much gents, that's cleared that up for me. That makes a lot of sense and I can see why they decided to do it that way back then instead of constantly moving a master copy.

 

His records are a bit of a mess and there's still aspects I'm deciphering and trying to pick apart, as there's a A LOT of service numbers noted among his documents, and I'm certain of a few thanks to members on this forum, however others are very confusing. I know they're not his numbers but those of someone else, however, when I searched up all of the numbers listed that aren't his not a single one came up with a hit with any name even a slight bit similiar. My aim was to find the other mans records to then be able to strike any false information off my relatives records by comparing the two, but to no avail. I know many recrods were lost during the blitz, but to not be able to find a single document, MIC, SR, PR etc I thought strange. There were men with the same name as my GGGF in his regiment, but their numbers are completely different.

 

Anyway, waffling on a bit, just wanted to say thank you again,

Harvey