A service record, if it survives, may contain details of medical units which treated a wounded or sick soldier.

WO 95/5494: Locations of medical units, listing Field Ambulance units, Casualty Clearing Stations and other hospitals.įrom a research perspective, discovering the medical units or hospitals that your ancestor may have been treated at can be quite difficult. This journey would come to see a wide variety of transportation methods utilised, ranging from stretcher bearers, horse-drawn carriages, motorised vehicles, barges and ships of various shapes and sizes. Having been injured, wounded or taken sick on the Western Front, British and Commonwealth soldiers would have received their initial medical treatment at a Field Ambulance unit, from where they would either be returned to their unit or sent further back to a Casualty Clearing Station for further care.įrom a Casualty Clearing Station the injured would be moved back further towards a Base Hospital before potential transportation home to a British military or civilian hospital. Medicine is one of the areas that we will be exploring and so today’s post is designed to give a brief overview of the route which wounded or sick soldiers would have taken when receiving treatment. This year, the focus of The National Archives’ First World War Centenary programme shifts to the use and development of technology.

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