ABSTRACT
We have little understanding of the increased active duty military suicide rates found in the United States, and little understanding of what is historically normative for combatants. Therefore, we examined historical records on suicides among the British Army during the Crimean War for the years 1854-1856. There were 18 documented suicides in the British Army during this period. Calculating an accurate annual suicide rate per 100,000 is impossible because it is unclear how many of the 111,313 military personnel were in country for each of the 2 years of the war. However, the range is conservatively estimated between 8 and 16 per 100,000, with the likely answer somewhere near the middle. This suggests the possibility that increasing suicide rates among active duty military may be a modern U.S. phenomenon.
