Bergen-Belsen Medical Kit Gifted to the Nation

To commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, a medical kit used to aid survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp has been gifted to the nation. The medical kit will join other items in the National Army Museum’s Collection relating to the British Army’s liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

Medical kit belonging to Major John Grice, Royal Army Medical Corps, c 1944

Bergen-Belsen was the first concentration camp to be liberated by British troops, on 15 April 1945. The camp was overcrowded and around 60,000 starving people, many suffering from typhus, tuberculosis and dysentery, required immediate aid. During its two-year existence it is estimated that 70,000 Jews, Slavs, political prisoners, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses and criminals died at Bergen-Belsen.

This modest-looking medical kit is packed with an incredible assortment of original scalpels, clamps and scissors, as well as two tins of cat-gut and silk-worm gut ligatures. It was owned by Major John Russell Grice and was used throughout his service in the Second World War.

Scottish-born, Major Grice was stationed across Europe during the war. In January 1945 he was appointed to 24 Field Dressing station, eventually becoming its commanding officer. During service with the latter he was sent to the recently liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945 to assist with the relief effort. Post-war service in Germany followed, including the treatment of German prisoners of war and displaced persons as well as British military personnel. On demobilisation in 1946, Grice returned to his role as GP (general practitioner) in Rochdale, where he lived until his death in 2009.

Major Grice’s family said: 'John Grice loved life. He was, first and foremost, an enthusiastic, dedicated GP and family man. For all his professional life, he was a driving force in his local community, giving freely of his time in a variety of ways. He was well known for his sense of fun, charitable fundraising exploits and never lost his Scottish roots of which he was so proud.'

Major Grice’s family have kindly given his kit to the Museum so that visitors can continue to learn more about surgery and medical advancements during wartime.

From Friday 27 January you can discover more about Bergen-Belsen, this medical kit, and how it would have been used during the Second World War, plus watch an interview with Surg Lt Col J H Lewin RHG/D about surgery in modern-day conflicts at: www.nam.ac.uk/belsen-medical-kit

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For more information or images, please contact:

• National Army Museum press office
  pr@nam.ac.uk
  020 7881 2433

Notes to editors

The National Army Museum explores the impact of the British Army on the story of Britain, Europe and the world; how Britain's past has helped to shape our present and our future and how the actions of a few can affect the futures of many.

The National Army Museum was established by Royal Charter to tell the story of the Land Forces of the Crown wherever they were raised. Opened by the Queen in 1960, it moved to its current site in Chelsea in 1971.