IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 GC/172
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Williams, Bernard Lewis (b 1910)
Date(s): 1942-1945
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1/2 box
Name of creator(s): Williams | Bernard Lewis | b 1910 | surgeon
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Bernard Williams was a surgeon and a Lieutenant-Colonel in the RAMC; he was called up from the Reserve at the outbreak of the Second World War. After the fall of France in 1940, he served in Egypt with No 8 General Hospital as a junior surgical specialist, and subsequently with the 2/5 Casualty Clearing Station [CCS] at Mersa Matruh. The highly mobile desert war led to the establishment of Field Surgical Units, to be attached to Casualty Clearing Stations or Field Ambulances to carry out surgical operations before the patients' transfer to hospitals far behind the lines. Williams was in command of No 6 FSU, with the rank of Major, from August 1942 until January 1943, dealing with casualties from the battles of Alam Halfa and El Alamein. A copy of his reminiscences of RAMC service, published in St Thomas's Hospital Gazette, Vol 87-88, 1989-1991, is in file GC/172/9. Williams was also Emeritus Consultant Surgeon for the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire Health District.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Bernard Lewis Williams, 1942-1945, including case book containing patient records, with enclosed memorabilia; the case-book is described by Mr Williams as `my private record of cases of special interest concerning which I requested follow-up information', but was continued for another two months after his departure from the unit.
Follow-up cards for most of the cases were attached to the relevant pages of the volume. For conservation reasons, these and the other enclosures have been removed to separate folders (GC/172/2-3).
Mr Williams also allowed copies to be made of text and photographs from a scrapbook which he had put together of his service with No 6 Field Surgical Unit (FSU), and of loose photographs, including transparencies.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
The majority of the papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.
The exceptions are the following files which are closed for data protection reasons:
GC/172/1 is closed until 1 January 2028
GC/172/2/1-30 is closed until 1 January 2027
GC/172/31-90 is closed until 1 January 2028
GC/172/3/1 is closed until 1 January 2028
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
This case-book, with enclosed memorabilia, was given to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre in September 1993 by Bernard Williams, FRCS.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
See also Archives and Manuscripts Department, Wellcome Library RAMC collection and Wellcome Library leaflet no. 7: War Medicine and Health post 1920. For further material on Williams, there may be some material deposited in Portsmouth City Records Office, although this has not been confirmed.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2009.