Just as silly is the so-called 100 year rule that prevents me gaining access to my g.uncle's medical records. He lived in an asylum from 1907 until his death in 1964. The head of the asylum told me I could have a copy of the records but, unfortunately, they were being held by Manchester Archives. The archivist there was adamant that I couldn't see them until 100 years after his death. As I would be 123 by then there is no doubt that I will never see the records. Strangely, other archivists in other record offices seem happy to let people have copies of medical records 50 years after the death of the patient.
After a lengthy correspondence they did agree to let me see his admission page as that was more than 100 years ago and I told them, only small white lie, that one of my sons was suffering mental problems and I wanted to see if whatever my uncle had was hereditary. In fact my son just had depression, for which he was successfully treated, whereas although not spelt out in so many words, I think my g.uncle must have been schizophrenic.
As my uncle was a single man when he went into the asylum and remained so until his death, he has no living ancestors closer than me and my 4th cousins, none of whom is going to be upset by details in his records.
Meanwhile, you can get your father's records from WW2 after his death without much hassle and there could be lots of things in those records which might be troubling. I believe, that my father could actually have sent for his own records if he'd realised they were available to him.
