Catalogue description Military Personnel Research Committee and Sub-committees, later Army Personnel Research Committee: Minutes and Papers

The MPRC was formed in 1941 under the auspices of the Medical Research Council (MRC) to assist the War Office in solving many of the problems affecting the well-being and efficiency of army personnel. It replaced the Body Protection Committee, which had established the value of bringing together military officers and civilian scientists for problem-solving exercises.

Second World War sub-committees include: Body Armour and Steel Helmets; Clothing; Weapons (Biological Assay); Entomology; Airborne Troops and Motion Sickness; Vision; Analeptic Substances; Accidents to Army Vehicles; Rations; and Armoured Fighting Vehicles. These demonstrate the wide scope of areas of concern of the Committee. Parallel committees were formed to advise the Air Ministry and Admiralty in 1939 and 1942 respectively.

In 1948 the MPRC was re-constituted, and left with four sub-committees: Information; Body Armour and Steel Helmets; Fighting Vehicles; and Clothing and Equipment. Following further reorganization, the MPRC comprised two sub-committees - Clothing and Equipment and Environmental Physiology - and eight panels: Combat Suit; Footwear; Load Carrying; Tropical Clothing; Trials; Environmental Factors; Research; and Physiological Specifications.

The MPRC worked closely with two Ministry of Supply establishments: the Clothing and Equipment Physiological Research Establishment (CEPRE) and the Clothing and Stores Trials Establishment (CSTE). There was also close liaison with the War Office's Army Operational Research Group (AORG).

The MPRC was dissolved in 1953 and replaced by an Army Personnel Research Group (APRG) under the control of a research committee appointed by the MRC.

The functions of the MPRC and its sub-committees and the APRG related only to devising ways and means of ensuring the maximum safety, efficiency and comfort of the healthy soldier on active service, and in the use of different weapons. They were not concerned with the care and treatment of the sick and wounded.