MH 106 Hussars

[joee86]

Hello,

I am trying to find a servicemans medical record who served in the 10th Hussars and was wounded in 1915 and 1918.

I know few files survive in MH106, but supposedly most have survived for certain units, one of which is the Hussars. 

Searching on the national archives I can only find one document- MH106/2197 however this covers only 1916-1917.

Individual 10th Hussars soldiers files do exist. Therefore I am confused as to whether the individual soldiers that I can see are the only 10th Hussars who have files? Or are those the only ones that have been transcribed yet? Is there a way of finding out which file to locate for the 10th Hussars for 1915 and 1918?

Thanks.

[Keith_history_buff]

Hello Joe,

There are line items in the MH 106 files. These line items record some brief details about the patients admitted to field hospitals and other establishments. If you subscribe to Fold3, you can see their transcriptions of these details. If you subscribe to FindMyPast, you can see images of the admission ledger pages, and you can transcribe what you see.

In some instances, some basic details of men admitted are recorded in the catalogue of The National Archives UK. As per the description, what has survived is a sample, it is not an exhaustive compilation of every casualty admitted to a medical establishment.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10949

Given that these are admissions to hospitals, they are centred around the establishment itself. They are not compiled for regiments. This would have been impractical in the years 1914 to 1918.

I see that Stanley Eckers is on the 1911 census with the 10th Hussars, and is stationed in Lucknow. Whilst his date of birth is 18 February 1889, the census indicates that his declared age upon enlistment was greater than his actual age. He also appears on the 1921 Census at Aldershot.

He has an entry in the Enlistment Book Army Form 358 which FindMyPast have digitised. He was renumbered as 532228. He was discharged from the British Army at Canterbury on 30 January 1925. He was appointed as a postman on 18 July 1931.

[joee86]

Thanks for this, very useful.

I've signed up to findmypast. I can see the one entry on medical register for 1918 and the enlistment record for his post war service. Do you know if there is a way of checking for his 1915 injury?

Further, his brother Edwin Ecker was wounded with the Leicestershire regiment and luckily his medical record appears to have survived. Is there a way of accessing this without going to the archives itself?

 

Thanks

[Keith_history_buff]

That I can tell, it is pot luck as to whether a man's injury does or does not end up in the sample contained within MH 106.

After a lot of playing around, I have been able to tailor the FMP search result, so that it is possible to navigate to the casualty admission page that relates to Pte Edwin Ecker 27895 of the Leicester Regiment

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/results?sourcecategory=armed forces %26 conflict&firstname=e*&firstname_variants=true&lastname=ecker&soldiernumber=27895&datasetname=british armed forces%2c first world war soldiers' medical records&sourcecountry=great britain&sid=999

[Keith_history_buff]

28 minutes ago, joee86 said:

Do you know if there is a way of checking for his 1915 injury?

I'm hoping another forum member can weigh in here.

There were War Office casualty lists, which would publish the surname, number, regiment and location of next of kin of a casualty. I believe this was published a month or so after the event. It tells you the individual was wounded, but not the specifics.

There are ways and means of finding these lists via FindMyPast / British Newspaper Archive but it's not something I look into on a regular basis.

[joee86]

Thanks. I saw that Edwin Ecker record. But if searched for on the National Archives site it seems to imply there is a complete record. Mentions stuff like removal of splinters, x rays etc. So assume the archives have the whole record whilst this one is the summary. 

[Keith_history_buff]

The only information that I have seen is the line item entry for the patient being admitted. I think you will find these admission records are the record set in its entirety, and that nothing is being held back by The National Archives. 

I have no recollection of other records, and would anticipate others coming forward to say otherwise, were it the case, and would evidence this with x-rays etc.

[Keith_history_buff]

Some interesting info on the website at Kew
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10949

Selection and destruction information:

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.
 

[Keith_history_buff]

Description:

The records in this series are a representative selection of several types of medical records from various theatres of war. The records include admission and discharge registers from hospitals and casualty clearing stations, field ambulances, an ambulance train and a hospital ship. There are also medical case sheets, selected to illustrate the diversity of diseases contracted, injuries received and treatments prescribed and medical cards relating to individuals in selected regiments....

Digital images of the admission and discharge registers can be searched online through our partner website, FindMyPast

There are also five volumes in the series that relate to the use of the original collection of medical records, of which MH 106 is a sample of, when they were being used by the Ministry of Pensions. This includes registers as well as volumes containing information on the provenance and use of the original collection.

Note:

Catalogue descriptions for this series were enhanced as part of a project financed by the Wellcome Trust, 2017-2020. Catalogue descriptions for the remaining medical case sheets are being enhanced as part of a volunteer project financed by the Friends of The National Archives. Records with later creation dates may be found within this series. It is believed that these were not created in the context of this series.

By definition, there will not be separation of records by regiment. By a process of transcribing key data, it should be possible to perform searches based upon regiment, for the amateur genealogist to find a soldier within the overall population of data.

[TEW]

The MH106 series falls into two categories for me. Those registers on FMP and the Medical sheets & cards with TNA and not digitised as yet.

MH106/2197 (7, 8 &10 Hussars) is part of the retained sample.

There will be other Hussars though retained as part of the 'disease/ailment' or hospital sample.

A search on TNA brings up 287 hits for Hussars in MH106. The first few come up for Napsbury, Respiratory, influenza, Teeth, Eczema etc. These are not within the 2197 set.

TEW

 

 

[TEW]

I can't search TNA within MH106/2197 so they've not indexed it. I can't even tell how many records they have in that series. Same is true for Artillery, Grenadier Guards etc.

TEW

[joee86]

This is the description of Edwin's report on the NA site.

 

Folio(s): 201-206.

Name: Edwin Ecker.

Rank: Lance Corporal.

Unit/Battalion/Regiment: 1 The Leicestershire Regiment.

Service number: 27895.

Age: 30.

Hospital(s): 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol; Red Cross Hospital, Taunton.

Condition/Injury/Disease: Gunshot Wound to Arm.

Details and Outcome: Patient admitted suffering with a gunshot wound and fracture to the right forearm. Wound received 20/11/1917 in Cambrai. Under course of treatment underwent removal of bone splinters. Further details given. Discharged on ten days sick furlough 13/05/1918. Includes two medical case sheets, three clinical charts and an X-ray report.

Number of Pages: 6.

[Keith_history_buff]

How interesting

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16973077

Ordering and viewing options

This record has not been digitised and cannot be downloaded.

You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. You will need a reader's ticket to do this. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you.

• Book a visit Request a copy

There is a gentleman named Lee Richards, who I have spoken to a few times at Kew. He can be hired to copy certain documents. I believe there is a minimum fee of X per document, and multiples of y for every sheet copied in the document. 

https://www.arcre.com/

Someone that I know of hired him, and paid one tenth of what was quoted to him by The National Archives for 380 images. (£45.60 versus the much higher quote.) I have no business relationship with him.

I think there are economies in scale, so do not know how much the six images that you would like copying is going to cost you.