Memoirs of National Service Medical Officers

The following is an interim description which may change when detailed cataloguing takes place in future:

Memoirs of National Service medical officers, collected by John S. G. Blair. These include typescript memoirs, correspondence, photographs, slides, publications, and notes. These cover all three services (Army, Navy, Royal Air Force), and contain reminiscences from medics posted to a number of different countries.

Also includes drafts of Conscript doctors: memories of National Service.

Dr John S. G. Blair conceived the idea of creating an archive of recollections of National Service medical officers, creating a unique resource documenting the only time in British history when there has been conscription in peace time.

National Service lasted from 1948-1960. During this time, all British medical graduates could be conscripted, and most were called to serve. National Service medical officers could be found throughout the three branches of the military, posted in military hospitals, on bases, and attached to regiments, amongst other things. Some remained in Britain, but many were posted abroad to places like Africa, Malaya, Hong Kong and Korea. The archive includes reminiscences from men stationed in Berlin and able to observe the behaviour of nearby Russians (this being the height of the Cold War), and an observer of nuclear tests at Christmas Island.

More information can be found in Conscript doctors: memories of National Service, the book compiled and edited by John Blair in the course of gathering this material.