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At the same time as the enumerators collected the household schedules for the 1939 Register they issued Identity Cards to everyone but who issued them for everyone born afterwards?

I’m assuming it was the Registrar of Births, but does anyone know the detailed process?

The Identity Number later became one’s NHS Number, and mine was CFAX 461, issued in 1944.

461 is my entry number in the Register of Births but CFA (X) isn’t in the list of Districts in 1939, so what’s it’s significance?

And that Identity Card Number structure of four letters and three numbers was continued by the NHS – but by 1982 it had clearly changed as my son’s number started HHBSJ.

Clearly as time passed changes were made to the system but what, and when?

PolyGeo
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Richard Mathews
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There's some information in a previous answer about this but in addition to the register take on 29th September 1939 that has been released that was a "Birth Register" used to issue cards for new births, a "Current Register" used to issue cards for people alive when the original register was taken but not registered as they were out of the country or in the military and a "Y Register" used for issuing replacements for lost/stolen cards. Those additional registers haven't been released.

I assume until 1952 when national registration ended primary responsibility rested with the authorities responsibly for issuing identity cards and after that it will have passed to the NHS as the remaining users of the data.

Quite how things worked between 1948 and 1952 is an interesting question - presumably the NHS simply had access to the registration records rather than maintaining a parallel copy?

TomH
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From NHS Number and the systems used to manage them

Original NHS number format

The original NHS number format (based on WWII National Identity Card Numbers) used an alpha-numeric code; an initial four-character code followed by numbers.

A paragraph follows, describing the format of the number for those in the 1939 Register. The report goes on to say:

Subsequent entries to the register (e.g. new births) would receive a number using the same format, where the alpha-component corresponded to the birth registration district and the time period. This system continued until 1996.

Re-reading the 1939 Register special issue of the Lost Cousins newsletter reminded me that reports about the 1939 Register are available on Histpop.org. Try searching Histpop.org to see if you can find a code table for registration districts that would have been in effect for a birth registered in 1944.

I recommend reading all of Peter Calver's issues of the Lost Cousins newsletter that pertain to the 1939 Register and the health service. In one he talks about ordering his own record (before the 1939 Register was released on findmypast).

Resources:

Jan Murphy
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