KEY RESOURCES

HOSPITAL WAR DIARIES

Held at The National Archives ( TNA), these accounts give fascinating detail about daily routine, operations and special events. Unlike regimental, divisional and battalion/ brigade diaries, they contain the names of individuals of all ranks relating to the RAMC, but also those who had died. Each day, the number of men admitted to the hospital was recorded and those who died were named, plus they give other information such as admission times and causes of death. Bob found Leonard in the diary for No 6 General Hospital in Rouen.

HOSPITAL RECORDS ONLINE

Forces War Records ( forces-warrecords.co.uk) has transcribed over one million WW1 Field Ambulance records held at TNA.

NEW YORK TIMES

The New York Times reported extensively on daily events at the front. Its archives can be accessed via subscription site newspapers .com and for free at nytimes. com/ref/membercenter/ nytarchive.html.

SCARLET FINDERS

The website scarletfinders. co.uk is indispensable if you are researching British military nurses during the First World War. As well as background information, it holds excerpts from the war diaries of Maud McCarthy, Matron-in- Chief; details of where to find records of a particular nurse; and how to identify the uniform a nurse was wearing in a photograph.

TRENCH MAPS

War diaries, held at TNA ( nationalarchives.gov.uk) and available to download, often contain trench maps, which you can use to establish where any action mentioned in accounts took place. These maps played a vital role in planning and fighting many major battles. Trench maps can also be viewed online for free ( maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches).