ABBREVIATIONS USED IN ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS

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     The documents  that appear on this site were written over a period of many years, and the originals were sometimes hand written, and sometimes typed from those notes, or from dictated notes taken in shorthand by secretaries.  It is often possible to identify a change of secretarial staff by the changes in typing style, punctuation, and particularly the form in which abbreviations have been used. The end result is a vast mixture of different styles, and for the purpose of these transcriptions some standardisation has taken place.  The series of Great War Accounts were all written and typed over a few weeks in the summer of 1919, and as far as possible the abbreviations have been left as in the original.  The official war diary, however, is the product of six years' work by many different members of the staff in the office of the Matron-in-Chief, and I decided that to prevent constant change of style, all abbreviations used in the diary would be transcribed without full stops between the letters, and omitting an apostrophe before the final 's' when an abbreviation is used to signify more than one, frequently used in the original.  The abbreviation list is an ongoing project - as more pages are added to the site, it will be updated with new abbreviations as they occur. Military abbreviations are numerous, and some have more than one interpretation; those included here apply to the meaning within the documents on these pages.

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A/Matron = Assistant Matron or Acting Matron
A/Principal Matron = Acting Principal Matron
A/Sister = Acting Sister
AAG = Assistant Adjutant General
AAMC = Australian Army Medical Corps
AANS = Australian Army Nursing Service
ACI = Army Council Instruction
Adcanef = Telegraphic address used by Canadian Headquarters in London
ADMS = Assistant Director Medical Services
AEF = American Expeditionary Force
AF = Army Form, and followed by another letter and series of numbers, e.g. AF B103
AG = Adjutant General
AGL = Lady Algernon Gordon-Lennox
AIF = Australian Imperial Force
AMD = Army Medical Department
AMFO = Assistant Military Forwarding Officer
AMLO = Assistant Military Landing Officer
AMS = Army Medical Service
ANCUSA = Army Nurse Corps United States of America
ANS = Army Nursing Service  (the predecessor of QAIMNS)
ANSR = Army Nursing Service Reserve (the predecessor of QAIMNS Reserve)
AOD = Army Ordnance Department
APM = Assistant Principal Matron or Assistant Paymaster
APMMC = Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps
AQMG = Assistant Quarter-Master General
ARRC = Associate Royal Red Cross (= Second Class)
ASC = Army Service Corps
BEF = British Expeditionary Force
BGH = British General Hospital
BRCS = British Red Cross Society
BWI = British West Indian
CAMC = Canadian Army Medical Corps
CB = Companion of the Bath
CBE = Commander of the Order of the British Empire
CC = Chief Commandant (WAAC)
CCS = Casualty Clearing Station
C of E = Church of England
CFA = Canadian Field Artillery
CHR = Civil Hospital Reserve (Trained nurses seconded voluntarily from civil hospitals)
CMB = Central Midwives Board, and used for a nurse who is also a qualified midwife
CMFC =
CO = Commanding Officer
CRE = Commanding Royal Engineers
DA and QMG = Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster General
DADMS = Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services
DADRT = Deputy Assistant Director of Railway Transport
DAG = Deputy Adjutant General
DAPS = Director of Army Postal Services
DAQMG = Deputy Assistant Quarter-Master General
DDAPS = Deputy Director of Army Postal Services
DDGMS = Deputy Director General Medical Services
DDMS = Deputy Director Medical Services
DDOS = Deputy Director Ordnance Services
DDS = Deputy Director Supplies
DDT = Deputy Director Transport
Dehorted = Telegraphic address of the office of the Matron-in-Chief, War Office
DG = Director General (Medical Services)
DGAMS = Director General Army Medical Services (at War Office, London)
DGMS = Director General Medical Services
DI = Dangerously Ill (as in 'Dangerously Ill List')
DIGC = Deputy Inspector General Communications
DMS = Director Medical Services
DOS = Director Ordnance Services
DOS/DoS = Director of Supplies
DoW or D of W = Director of Works
DRLS = Despatch Rider Letter Service
DSC = Distinguished Service Cross
DSO = Distinguished Service Order
EFC = Expeditionary Force Canteens
EMO = Embarkation Medical Officer
FA = Field Ambulance or Field Allowance
FA or FAU = Friends' Ambulance Unit
FANY = First Aid Nursing Yeomanry
F&F = France and Flanders
GBE. = Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
GCB = Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath
GDO = General Duty Orderly[ies]
GHQ = General Headquarters
GOC, L of C = General Officer Commanding, Lines of Communication
GP = General Purpose
GRO = General Routine Orders
GS = General Service
HM = His Majesty [King George V]
HQ = Headquarters
HRH = His/Her Royal Highness
HS = Hospital Ship
i/c = In charge
IGC = Inspector General Communications
IMS = Indian Medical Service
Inst. = Instant, or 'the current month'
JWC = Joint War Committee (of British Red Cross Society and SJAB)
KCMG = Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George
LH = The London Hospital, Whitechapel
L of C = Lines of Communication
MBE = Member of the Order of the British Empire
Medsercan = Telegraphic address of the Canadian Medical Services, London
MEF = Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
M-i-C = Matron-in-Chief
MID = Mention in Despatches
Mist. Expect. Stim. = (loosely) Mixture Expectorant Stimulant or Cough Mixture
MLO = Military Landing Officer
MM = Military Medal
MO = Medical Officer
MP = Military Probationer(s)
N/Sister = Nursing Sister
NCO = Non-commissioned Officer
'Nerves' = One of the War Office's telegraphic addresses
NYD = Not yet Diagnosed
NYD(N) = Not yet Diagnosed (Nervous) or (Neurasthaenia)
NZANS = New Zealand Army Nursing Service
NZEF = New Zealand Expeditionary Force
NZMC = New Zealand Medical Corps
OBE = Officer of the Order of the British Empire
OMFC = Overseas Military Forces of Canada
OMO = Orderly Medical Officer
OC = Officer Commanding
PB = Permanent Base
PM = Principal Matron
PMO = Principal Medical Officer
PUO = Pyrexia [raised temperature] of Unknown Origin
Q = An abbreviated form of QAIMNS - a member of the 'Regular' Service
QAIMNS = Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
QAIMNSR = Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
QAMNSI = Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India
QMNG = Queen Mary's Needlework Guild
R/Nurse = Reserve Nurse (applies to American nurses)
RAMC = Royal Army Medical Corps
RAMC (T) = Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial)
RC = Roman Catholic
RE = Royal Engineers
RGA = Royal Garrison Artillery
RRC = Royal Red Cross (= First Class)
RTO = Railway Transport Officer
S/N = Staff Nurse
S/Nurse = Staff Nurse
SAAA = St. Andrew's Ambulance Association
SAMC/S = South African Medical Corps/Service
SAMNS = South African Military Nursing Corps
SF = Scarlet Fever
SI = Seriously Ill (as in 'Seriously Ill List')
SI = Self-inflicted (as in 'Self-inflicted injuries)
SJAB = St. John's Ambulance Brigade
SMO = Senior Medical Officer
Stat. or Staty. = Stationary
TFNS = Territorial Force Nursing Service
Ult. = Ultimo, or 'the preceding month'
USANC = United States Army Nurse Corps
VAD = Voluntary Aid Detachment (or individual member of Detachment)
VC = Victoria Cross
WAAC = Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
WO = War Office
YMCA = Young Men's Christian Association



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