The Dataset

The 4,741 entries in the original dataset were made in ink by different administrative personnel in unknown conditions. The original documents contain mistakes in spelling, variations in the use of abbreviations and arithmetic errors. Many entries display this evidence of human error in the not infrequent non-standard entries, in addition to additions, deletions and some instances of almost illegible cursive script. The greatest care has been taken to eliminate as many of these issues as possible and to rationalise the information that is contained in the ledgers.

File Reference Number

The majority of the entries have a Ministry of Pensions (MoP) reference number, for example: 13/MW/2074. '13' identifies that this file relates to a person living in the Irish Free State, what is now the Republic of Ireland. '12' signifies the six counties of Ulster that remained in the United Kingdom. The first letter signifies the arm of service of a veteran. 'M' is for army service. 'N' for Royal Navy service. 'AF' was for service in the Royal Air Force. The second letter is the first letter of the surname of a veteran, in this case the 'W' is for the family name Weldon. The last number is the number of individuals with that surname initial who were in receipt of a disability pension. There is no known list or roll of Great War disability pensioners extant. Surviving records in the Nation Archives UK have not retained this information for a number of reasons.

1. The Annual Reports of the MoP did not differentiate between the different parts of the British Isles and only published overall figures.
2. The deliberate and accidental destruction of many documents in the 1930s.
3. The destruction of documents by German bombing during the Second World War.
4. The decision by NAUK to retain only 2% of First World War pension files as samples of the material produced.

Besides identifying an individual, the MoP reference enables an estimate to be made of the number of disabled veterans living in Ireland during this timeframe by identifying the highest number recorded for each initial and adding them together. Academics have not found another way that this might be done.

Unit Column

This entry is usually abbreviated. It provides a cross section of the various regiments and corps that Irish men and women served in.

Click here for a list of abbreviations

Service Number

All service personnel were given a number on enlistment. During the First World War there was no centralised system for this. Each regiment or corps issued numbers according to their own system that was independent of any other. Therefore, it is possible to find more than one person with the same name and number, but they were completely different people in different military units. Another complication is that if an individual was transferred from one regiment to another, they were often given a new number which confuses an already confusing situation.

Rank

Rank is of limited use as promotions, demotions, temporary ranks and appointments were not uncommon events.

Age

The age on admittance can be used to work out the age of a person during the period 1914 to 1918. It can also be used to determine if there was any correlation between that age and the reason for admittance, for example if there was a likely of a disease recurring as the years progressed.

Reason for Admittance

Three categories are used for this entry.

1. GSW. The common abbreviation for Gun Shot Wound. This has been used for all who suffered traumatic injury by bullets or explosions that could be attributed to direct enemy action.
2. Disease. Used to classify those suffering from some disease, sickness or injury as a result of, or aggravated by their military service. Using the criteria applied by the Ministry of Pensions at that time, this includes all personnel who were the victims of gas or chemical warfare, as well as psychological disorders.
3. Both. Veterans who were unfortunate to have disabilities or ailments that fell into both categories 1 and 2.

Diagnosis

The majority of admissions were for only one medical reason. However, over 500 veterans were admitted suffering from two or even three issues for which they received treatment. One category that is very apparent is the number of pensioners who suffered from some sort of respiratory or pulmonary disorder. The large numbers these conditions found and the ability to categorise them have led to a reappraisal of the health of surviving disabled veterans. Besides various medical terms used in the Diagnosis columns, the most used abbreviations are R: Right, L: Left, Ampt: Amputated/Amputation.

Admission/Discharge date and Duration of Stay

In addition to measuring the length and frequency of each stay in hospital, the rate of admission and discharge can be determined, as can whether there were any seasonal or other similar trends.

Religion

Unsurprisingly Roman Catholic (RC) is recorded as the religion for the majority of entries in the dataset. The others are Church of Ireland (CoI), Church of England (CoE) and Presyterian (Pres).

Next of Kin

Where it is recorded, the relationship of the Next of Kin to the disabled veteran is noted as well as their home address if different to that of the veteran.

Home Address

The addresses found are broken down by county, town or district and street if possible. This method facilitates a demographic survey of disabled veterans to be undertaken.