MEDAL NEWS AUGUST NOW ON SALE! Medal News, the World's only magazibne devoted to medals and battles, is now on sale. Many interesting features in the August edition.
Wreck of the Benvenue
Heroism in the face of adversity at sea
Collecting modern medals
Bringing the hobby up to date
Awards of the BWM
Spotlighting the unique criteria
Palestine Patrol
A difficult task for the RN in the Middle East
Battle Zone Caen
The heavy price of the push to liberate Europe
Ypres casualty
The story behind a Canadian Memorial Cross
Badges of the Cameron Highlanders
A historic regiment's badges
Regular Features
THE EDITORIAL
NEWS AND VIEWS
MARKET SCENE
BOOKSHELF
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
ON PARADE
DEALERS' LISTS
MEDAL TRACKER
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
DIARY
YOUR OPINION COUNTS
THE Ministry of Defence has recently announced that they are holding a public consultation with regard to the fate of the Armed Forces Personnel Records which it plans to transfer to the National Archives (TNA) over the next few years. Under the Public Records Acts when government records reach 30 years of age they must be either transferred to the NA or destroyed, alternatively permission must sought from the Lord Chancellor for the records to be retained in the originating department for administrative or other purposes.
The MoD started transferring the records of Armed Forces personnel who served in World War I to TNA in 1996 and these have been invaluable for genealogists and us medal collectors however it continues to hold a substantial number of service records which are over 30 years old under permission from the Lord Chancellor and the challenge now is what to do with them? Bearing in mind the near hysteria that surrounds “Data Protection” these days the MOD has announced that their aim is “to develop an enduring approach that protects personal data appropriately whilst allowing researchers and historians the opportunity to make use of a valuable historical resource” — hence this public consultation.
In essence the problem they face is how to balance the needs of people like us, the historians (be they military or family) and the Freedom of Information Act that allows us access to things we never thought possible with the need for privacy and the Data Protection Act that seems to fly in the face of the former...! It’s a fair point, after all, whilst most of us would be delighted to know more about the recipients of our World War II groups many of these files may well contain particularly personal details that would, if released, cause concern or embarrassment to the individual or their living relatives. For example, they may contain information about the physical or mental health of the person to whom they relate or may well indicate if they were convicted of an offence. Information may even be as intimate as records of sexual activity! Unfortunately the sheer volume of records that we’re talking about, even in the early stages of transfer (which include 170,000 records for soldiers born before 1895 but who served after the end of World War I and 4.5 million records for those that enlisted in the Home Guard during World
