Archive Assistant, Neil Wiffen, introduces Essex Record Office’s part of the “Grounds for Appeal” project.

Here at the Essex Record Office (ERO) we are pleased to be taking part in the national Grounds for Appeal (GfA) project. While there are not a huge number of surviving records at ERO in comparison to some of our project partners, it is still great to be able to participate in the GfA project and contribute the data from our records to the national database that is being constructed. We are particularly pleased to be taking part in this project as we are sure that the Project Officer will be well known to many of you – Hannah Salisbury who undertook various roles at ERO over many years in the 20teens including starting this very blog!

It is only in the last few weeks that we have got our volunteers to start work on the surviving records. In the first instance they will be concentrating on the 700 or so surviving applications (and their associated supporting paperwork) for medical re-examinations to Essex Appeal Tribunal, which date from the end of 1917 into 1918.

The first job that we decided to undertake was to re-package and label the documents associated with each application. While they are in generally good condition, despite being over a century old, we needed them to be ready to be inputted into the GfA database when that stage was reached. Each set of documents (which might comprise just the application form but, more usually, this and several supporting documents) were checked and re-packaged into an acid free paper wrapper and then ten document filled wrappers were put into an acid free manilla folder. Several of these completed folders are then stored in an acid free box thus ensuring their long-term preservation.

Volunteer Ashley says:

“It was great fun learning what conservators have to do to protect these documents and getting a chance to clean some of them with smoke sponges.”

The crucial piece of information to give each application at this stage was a unique catalogue reference number so that in the fullness of time, the descriptions of each application can be loaded onto our Essex Archives Online catalogue, making these documents searchable and available to researchers.

Once the re-packaging had got underway, the next task was to start inputting the data from the documents into the GfA online data collection form. This is slightly trickier and more involved than the re-packaging as the volunteers have to contend with handwriting from a century ago as well as various medical terms. However, they have been tackling it with great enthusiasm. Each case is different and the documents shine a light on the process of recruitment during the last year of the First World War.

Volunteer Kim says:

“It has been very interesting working through the data collection form as it has allowed me to look in more detail at the medical examination process. It gives a great insight into the issues affecting men at that time.”

That’s all for now, the volunteers are carrying on re-packaging and listing and on behalf of ERO and GfA I would like to say how grateful we are for their enthusiasm and dedication to this project. Reading the application forms makes you realise how lucky we are to live in a country which does not need to recruit to a mass citizen army at a time when many hundreds of thousands of men had already been killed.

And remember, further details can be found at Grounds for Appeal (GfA) project.