Researching your ancestors' military history
World War One
About 60% of the military records of soldiers who fought in World War One were destroyed during the Second World War. Those records that remain may be found in the British Army service records on the ancestry.co.uk website; medal cards for all soldiers are also listed. Burial records may be found at the Commonwealth War Graves site and also on Ancestry UK. Various other records such as WW1 diaries, army pension records, navy lists and prisoners of war are also listed on Ancestry UK. The website findmypast.co.uk also gives records of servicemen in WW1. A specialist website called the longlongtrail.co.uk focuses on WW1 and gives some very good information about how to research soldiers, units, regiments and battles of the WW1 British Army. Another website called the greatwar.co.uk offers an overview for researching records.
World War Two
Under the Data Protection Act details of WW2, military records are not yet generally available. However, various lists such as British prisoners of war, army roll of honour, civil defence gallantry awards from 1940-1949 and WW2 civilian death records are available on Ancestry UK. The Commonwealth War Graves website also lists WW2 casualties.
Other records
The Napoleonic Wars are covered in Waterloo records 1812-1817 on Ancestry UK, and miscellaneous naval records are also available, such as officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815, the navy lists, the navy medal and award rolls, and medals given to merchant seamen. And there are various other lists which cover long periods of time, such as the military campaign medals of 1793-1949, again found on Ancestry UK.
Findmypast provides records of servicemen of the Anglo-Boer War, Korean War, Spanish Civil War, Napoleonic War, and the Malayan Emergency, as well as peacetime army lists, army deserters, RAF servicemen and military nurses.
Ancestry UK provides lists of Scottish soldiers in colonial America, soldiers and casualties of the Boer War, RAF records 1918-1940, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps index 1917-1920, the Women's RAF index 1918-1920 and the Women's Royal Naval Service index 1917-1919.
Susan Francia
Family History Research Services
01822 820855
fhistoryresearch@gmail.com
www.family-historyresearch.co.uk