AFMC’s war surgery museum honours battlefield doctors

PUNE: Tucked inside the tranquil campus of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, the War Surgery Museum offers a powerful, immersive journey into India’s military ‘medical history - one shaped by battlefield tratima, surgical grit, and humanitarian service. A journey that is enhanced by some recent additions like a war diary, samurai sword gifted by Japanese soldiers, and the arte-facts of Heneral Bardhan.

- Nadeem Inamdar

The museum is one of India’s oldest military medical archives. It traces the evolution of wartime medicine through rare artifacts, visceral exhibits, and personal stories of doctors who served not only in operating theatres, but also amid active combat zones. The museum was originally established in 1944 by Lt Col J Rice in Babina, located in Uttar Pra-desh’s Jhansi district. It was later moved to a government facility near Pune University in 1948, and subsequently to the ‘Army School of Physical Training. In 1958, the museum found its permanent home at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMO), where it was developed along the lines of the Wellcome Trust Museum of the History of Medicine at University College London.