89th Indian General Hospital and Medical records

Hi all,
Piecing together my Grandads war records, and visited Kew last weekend to pour over his units war diaries.
He was hospitalised a couple of times or so, between 42 and 44ish, but one stands out - His RE unit saw its heaviest fighting in April '44, and on the same day their second in command was killed by a mortar, my grandad was admitted into 89 IGH (where the 2nd in command was also taken) and spent several days in there. He never mentioned getting hurt in battle, but I'm assuming that in the midst of a battle, he'd hardly likely be admitted for a routine procedure or anything! So I'm wondering if it was related to the outbreak of fighting in the Lion Box at that point (6th April '44)

The only information I've been able to dig up (from an old Indian Army medical book) on the 89 IGH is that it was in Palel, but I know they occasionally moved, so I cant guarantee it was there at that point.

I plan on going back to Kew to look up the hospitals war diary (WO 177/2249), but I was wondering if anyone had any furhter information on 89IGH here at all? Also, what am I likely to find in its war diary? Specific patient info (who came in, when and why etc) or will it be vague?

Is there any such thing as individual medical records for personnel? and if so, are they available? My grandad was hospitalised for 2 weeks in may/june '43 also, which coincides with a sharp increase in Malaria within the 864th according to the unit war diary, so I'm putting 2 and 2 together and assuming thats when he had it (as I know he had it, just not sure when), but a medical record would obviously give me more info.

Thanks for any and all replies and any help, much appreciated

Paul

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum.

His medical records ought to be with his service file at UK MOD Personnel Centre, Glasgow.

However, unlike other Commonwealth countries, UK MOD do not release medical documents/information with the service papers due to Data Protection - same reason as NHS won't release medical records on deceased persons.

The best you will get is an admission/discharge date to a medical facility and whether the reason was sickness/injury or battle casualty.

Regards

Steve Y

 

Hi Paul,

I wish you better luck than I had when peering into the war diary for the 19th Casualty Clearing Station. This was in relation to the Chindit 1 casualties and their post operational treatment at CCS19. Here is an example of a typical page, not very inspiring, as you will see. Fingers crossed that 89 IGH will be far more informative.

Steve

 

Hello Paul, you need to read my book to learn about the battle of Lion Box
at Kanglatongbi!! What was his name?
Lionboxer

 

Thanks for the heads up Steve Y, I'll look into that!
And thanks to Steve for the other heads up.....I'm planning on going back to Kew to pour over everything again,so I will add the 89 IGH diary to my list, but after seeing your pic, I wont hold out much hope of specific info

Hi Lionboxer, or should that be CD Johnson?! I joined the forum about 5+ years ago and mentioned how invaluable your book was (this was before I had my grandads records, and way before my Kew visit), and you replied ot the thread but sadly I didnt pick up the message (couldnt login as my email address changed, plus health issues, got married, my son was born, got divorced etc etc - life got busy real quick!), but stumbled across it on a google search recently!
In a better position to really investigate things now, so I'm enjoying sifting through all the needles in haystacks to find info. Obviously any pointers to needle locations are welcome!
I actually received my copy of your book back from my dad today, so now armed with a lot more information than before, I'm champing at the bit to read it again tonight, and make notes against what I now know of my grandads whereabouts. The maps and photocopies of letters etc that are in your book are going to be fantastic to go through properly now too

My grandad was called Herbert 'Bert' Kadwill (2010847) - Driver and batman to Captain Revell (36 Section OC and took over OC of 864 when Pritchard and Gray were incapactiated on consecutive days in April '44).
My avatar pic shows my grandad on the right, Revell on the left. They worked together right from training and throughout the war

Thank you everyone

Paul

 

Hi Paul
From my experience it will be vague. I have consulted a few of the War Diaries for the medical units from the Imphal fighting and they, at best, say that 'n officers and x ORs admitted wounded' plus the normal admin stuff of hospital moving, officers going on leave etc.
Was he admitted straight there or through another medical unit such as a field ambulance? Again that may give you further clues.

Tony

 

I remember now Paul.
89IGH was in Imphal somewhere. Will try to be more specific when I've had a look through my bits and pieces. Your granddad was not wounded as he is not on a casualty list. Most frustratingly the part two orders of 864 that I have has been torn off where it lists hospital admissions (as opposed to casualty) so he may have relapsed with malaria during the battle and been evacuated thus missing Good Fridays heavy fighting and casualties.
I would be most grateful if I could have a copy of your avatar photo and any others you may have to add to my growing collection of individuals involved with Lion Box. These will be used in the revised edition of my book.

 

Thanks Tony, but there isn't a line about field ambulance etc, just directly to igh 89.

Thank you so much lionboxer! Malarial relapse is definitely a possibility, he was hospitalised for the same amount of time on April 6th as he was the the previous year (6 days), so that could be it.

Re pics, you're more than welcome to copies. I'll see if i can attach some here, but they're only photos of the photos. I've got my dad on the case to scan them in properly though. All the ones i have are loose photos, but there are more in an album - trying to get the pages scanned and I'll edit the JPEGs if we can. If not, I'll photograph them and I'm also on the hunt for a portable scanner. I will forward on the scans etc as soon as i have them (this week hopefully)

 

Having trouble uploading as pics are too big. Will try to shrink their file size on my tea break (at work) and try again later.
Lionboxer - if you message me your email address please, I'll forward you the larger sized pics directly too
Cheers!
Paul

 

Top: Captain Revell and my grandad (Driver Kadwill). Bottom: near enough an 8x10 of Captain Revell that was in with my grandparents photos

 

Top: Revell and Kadwill again. Bottom: Driver Kadwill, taken in Calcutta 15/7/43

 

Last one of the loose pics - my nan and grandad - Olive (known as Rene) and Bert Kadwill

 

There's some cracking pictures there, thanks.
89 IGH was in Oyster Box roughly in the area of milestone 125 on the main Imphal Dimapur road. The main Imphal runway was just over the hill from there. It was the first hospital along the road from Lion Box at milestone 118.

Bamboo43 19CCS was in Kipper Box on the other side of the Imphal runway to 89 IGH.

Lionboxer

 

On 1st March it was in Palel but may well have moved later as Lionboxer says. The best source on the hospitals I have found is by FAE Crew 'The Official Medical History of the Second World War: The Army Medical Services Vol V'.

 

Hi Lionboxer

What is the source and the date of the following:
89 IGH was in Oyster Box roughly in the area of milestone 125 on the main Imphal Dimapur road. The main Imphal runway was just over the hill from there. It was the first hospital along the road from Lion Box at milestone 118. 19CCS was in Kipper Box on the other side of the Imphal runway to 89 IGH?

Cheers!

 

Thanks so much for the info lionboxer and skoyen 89!
I've been trying to source the book you mentioned skoyen, but can only find other volumes (I, II etc) and they're all expensive! Lol I'll hunt online library sources near to me to see if there's one i can borrow from a local library.

Lionboxer - re pics, my dad's found a load more pics in with my grandparents photo collection. I reckon in total there's about 20-30, maybe more. My dad's started scanning them but it may take a few days. I'll then edit the JPEGs to crop out the empty spaces etc so each jpeg is a photo (rather than a small photo on a blank page lol) and then I'll forward them onto the address you've kindly supplied
There's a lot of 'everyday' pics such as when they travelled in convoy through India, washing/shaving outside tents, group pics (O.Rs and one of my grandad, another batman and the Indian officer's mess staff!), A pic with a large off road vehicle, one of Captain Revell and a caterpillar d8 dozer (in the UK before they left) and shots of local Indian people etc.
I'll forward them all into you with the captions (handwritten on the back of some of them) typed up.

I'm on holiday next week but hoping to do some whilst the kids are in bed and I'll forward them as soon as they're done.

 

Lovely photos as everyone has said. I've enjoyed seeing this thread develop, very interesting.

 

Thanks Lionboxer, I knew 19 CCS was in the Imphal area, so its great to have a more accurate location.

 

Thanks Paul, looking forward to that.

Skoyen / Bamboo my info came from war diaries. The one in particular was dated 5th April 44. From it and others I was able to plot on a map the area where the box was. I will try to post a Google Earth image. No promises as I'm bit of a techno duffer!

Lionboxer

 

Any good?