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Archiver > SOG-UK > 2005-03 > 1110856944


From: "Edna & Ken" <>
Subject: WWI Medals reply from National Archives
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:22:24 -0500


A reply about the WWI Medal cards which might interest you all.

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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
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