WW1 personnel records

[D ap D]

The following message appeared on a mailing list and I felt it might be
worthwhile passing it on:

Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup, UK: The Gillies Archives of plastic surgery
Purely by accident, I have discovered an amazing archive of WW1 personnel material, which hitherto I have never seen listed as a source for research.
For years I have been trying to locate the admission and discharge records of a particular Cottage Hospital in the 1930's. Two weeks ago, I
discovered that they were located at The Gillies Archives of plastic surgery at Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup, UK.

I had to make an appointment to view the records that I was seeking but to my amazement I discovered the main contents of the archives were the case notes of military personnel who suffered facial injuries during WW1. I mentioned that I had a member of my family who had a war wound to his jaw and within seconds of me giving his name, his medical records were produced with details of his age, rank, regiment, date of wound and the battle,  together with the dates and nature of his operations. To my astonishment, I was then informed that they had further information on my relative, in as  much that whilst he was in the hospital for treatment he had learned embroidery and they showed me a photograph of his handiwork, which was embroidery of his regimental cap badge and colours.

They have thousands of photographs of their WW1 patients, many taken
before they were wounded, but mostly of their wounds and the result after treatment. The archivist is keen to obtain photographs of ex-patients after they had settled back into civilian life.

Altogether the archives contain over 2500 records of UK, Australian and
New Zealand personnel. Most of the case notes are in their original folders and relate mostly to soldiers, with a small number of Navy and Flying Corps personnel, whom had suffered burns. The records include rank, number, regiment and date of wounding so that the action in  which they were wounded can often be identified.

I am informed that The Gillies and Macalister Archives are probably the
most important and complete collection of facial surgery records of their age in the world and they are available to researchers by application to the Curator, details of which are on the following website: -

http://website.lineone.net/~andrewbamji/

I hope this information may of use to some WW1 researchers who are
currently unaware of this research source.

Modification: Thanks Bob, have now changed it.

[Hackstaple]

I saw Dr. Andrew Bamji last week at the hospital - he is a really good man and dedicated to this particular branch of medical history although he is himself a rheumatologist. He is interested in family history in several ways and has a relative in Calcutta who has his family history back to 830AD, mostly written in classical Persian!

[Berlin-Bob]

A slight correction to the web address is necessary: http://website.lineone.net/~andrewbamji/

there was a superfluous > at the end of the address, which resulted in an "Error 404 Page not found"