Last year I picked up an Osprey Mk 4 First Aid kit, complete with a wide selection of medical supplies which I believe were added by a user rather than put in after it was taken out of service and I thought this would be of interest to look at in some details. The contents don’t seem to be from combat use, but certain elements are military issue so I suspect it was used by either a UK based soldier as a basic first aid kit for exercises or the range, or perhaps used by a cadet.

The kit is contained in the standard Osprey first aid pouch in MTP, which features a black cross on the front to show its contents:

Inside is a selection of dressings and bandages:

A selection of disposable latex gloves:

A vent aid that allows safe resuscitation without having to put your lips to the casualty’s mouth, which matches examples I was issued with during first aid training in the military:

And most telling of all, a selection of antiseptic wipes that come straight from military ration packs:

This little kit would allow many incidents to be dealt with outside of the battlefield and the range of items suggests things pulled together by an individual from military stores to give a basic first aid kit. These little selections are very interesting as getting kit lists for contemporary pouches is always very hard, and often doesn’t match what is actually carried so it is hard to work out which bits to add to fill out a pouch, so anytime you can find a complete set taken straight from service it is a valuable time capsule.