WW1 Medal list to be destroyed

[RJ_Paton]

My email has also gone out

I've also emailed my local MP (labour) who states he was unaware of proposal.

[Nick Carver]

I too have sent an e-mail, but to be proactive we should be prepared to find an organisation that can take ownership of the cards and preserve them for posterity. It would have to be an organisation with sufficient gravitas and independence to avoid the MoD being able to say that they are not suitable. Does anyone have any ideas?

[JillJ]

Good thinking Nick.   The Royal British Legion immediately springs to my mind, but how practical or possible that would be I don't know!

Jill

[Willow 4873]

My five pennies worth has been sent

Willow x

[newbie]

I've just sent mine, I'm shocked that they can even consider doing this, appalling
Newbie

[sandie]

I've sent mine.

Sandie

[jaq]

i also saw this posting on another board and sent my email. i do hope it helps, they havent given us much time!

[SS from The Rhondda]

A reply about the WWI Medal cards which might interest you all.
Posted on the Rootsweb Bristol & Somerset Mailing List 14/3/2005

Quote:
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
End Quote.

[Nick Carver]

This is not good enough. Why can they not list the museums and institutions that have rejected the cards? Surely they have an obligation to preserve them as items of significant national importance? I think we should all consider raising the subject with our MPs. Perhaps the cards could go to the regimental museums for the varoius combatants? That would involve a certain amount of sorting, but not as much as (say) if they offered the cards for sale to family.