Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (26 page)

The website www.ancestry.co.uk is placing the entire collection of WO 364 online, which subscribers to the site will be available to search.

Many people researching their ancestors’ service records may have a medal from that conflict. Indeed every soldier of the First World War serving overseas was awarded two campaign medals – the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Additional medals were given to individuals who served on particular fronts at particular times, such as the 1914 Star, or who sustained injuries through the conflict, such as the Silver War Badge.

The awards of these medals were recorded in a medal roll and an index card was also created to find a soldier’s entry in the appropriate medal roll. These records form the closest surviving documentation for an Army Roll indexing every individual. The Medal Index Cards have been digitized and copies of these images are available on The National Archives website on Documents Online. It is possible to search the Index free of charge, although downloading an image will incur a charge. Often this is the only record that survives for a serving soldier, and the Index Cards can be used to ascertain the regiment and service number of your ancestor. Basic details relating to the soldier’s period of service are also given, such as date of enlistment and discharge along with field of conflict. Separate medals, known as gallantry medals, were also issued to individuals who were rewarded for individual acts of heroism. These were indexed by separate cards, also available to search on Documents Online. Medal rolls for earlier conflicts can be found at The National Archives. There are research guides available online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk to help you find the relevant record series.

1.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission

This commission was created in order to remember the war dead of the First World War (and later wars). The commission has placed the Debt of Honour Register online on www.cwgc.org. This register lists all casualties along with when they died and where they were buried. Sometimes you may also find information about relatives. This register can be searched free of cost.

2.
War Diaries

These diaries are useful for those interested in the operational history of the First World War. Each battalion recorded their movements, activities and fighting on a daily basis. However, they are not personal recollections of individuals fighting in the war; these recollections are now at the Imperial War Museum. The war diaries can be found at The National Archives in series WO 95. Some have been digitized and placed online at Documents Online, others are on microfilm and some are still in original paper form. Some copies can also be found at the appropriate regimental museum, although they will be the same copies as found at The National Archives.

3.
Pension Records

The National Archives has various series of pension records. The main series is to be found in PIN 26, although only a 2 per cent sample now survives. The files relate to personnel applying for pensions even if they were not awarded one. It has been indexed by name on the catalogue and can be searched by name.

4.
Personal War Diaries

Although the majority of Army records are held at The National Archives, you can also find certain useful information at the Imperial War Museum. The Museum holds a ‘documents collection’ containing private papers and journals of serving officers and soldiers in the First World War (and other conflicts). It also has a number of records for war poets along with numerous other personal archives. Further information can be found on their website, at www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search.

Surviving service records are only in the public domain for those men who were discharged shortly after the end of the First World War in 1918. If the individual served into the 1920s his service record is still retained by the Ministry of Defence. The dates the records are retained from vary depending on whether your ancestor was an officer or an other rank. If an officer served after 31 March 1922 his records will still be retained, and the same for soldiers serving after the end of 1920. Next of kin can apply to the Ministry of Defence directly at the following address:

Ministry of Defence’s Army Personnel Centre

Historic Disclosures

Mailpoint 555

Kentigern House

65 Brown Street

Glasgow G2 8EX

All of the above information has related to the regular British Army. However, the British also had a military force specifically for maintaining British rule in India, and there are separate archives relating to this force. The British Indian Army had officers of European origin and was under the control of the Viceroy. It was formed in 1859 after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a successor to the army maintained by the East India Company (EIC). The trading company maintained forces in three regions in India (Bengal, Madras and Bombay) from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. These armies were known as ‘Presidency Armies’. Each regiment of these three armies had European officers; however, they had other ranks of European or ‘Native’ origin. After the failed Rebellion of 1857, the East India Company was abolished and India was governed directly by the British Crown. Henceforth, European officers staffed the Bengal, Madras and Bombay armies until these sub-armies were united into one Indian Army in 1889. Additionally, the other ranks would solely be of Indian origin.

The British Library now holds the majority of records relating to the British colonization of India, including military records. They form part of the Library’s Asia, Pacific and African collection.

As with the regular British Army, the best place to begin tracing the career of an officer of the Indian Army is through the Indian Army Lists. They were published from 1759 for the Bombay and Madras Presidencies and 1781 for Bengal. In 1889 a universal India Army List was published due to the amalgamation of all three forces. The British Library has the complete collection, and an incomplete collection can also be found at The National Archives.

Individual service records were only kept from 1900 onwards until 1950. They are held in the British Library in series IOL L/MIL/14 although they are subject to 75-year closure rules (from the date the individual entered the Army). Further information can be found in the information leaflets on the website of the British Library.

The British Library also has recruitment records, muster lists and other registers for European men serving as soldiers within the Indian forces. More information can be found in the appropriate information leaflet in the British Library. The National Archives also has certain lists and registers originally created by the East India Company.

Suggestions for further reading:

•  
The National Archives has produced a number of useful research guides to all aspects of its records for the British Army, which can be found on its website

•  
The British Library has similar information for its collection of Indian Army military records

•  
Tracing Your Army Ancestors by Simon Fowler (September 2006)

•  Army Service Records of the First World War
by William Spencer (August 2001)

The militia was a group of locally raised volunteer armed forces and can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times. Records for such units survive from the Tudor period until the end of the Civil War; militia units were next raised in 1757 and continued to exist until 1907 with the passing of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, which formed the Territorial Force (which became known as the Territorial Army in 1921). The majority of surviving material concerning the militia can be found at The National Archives or local record offices.

Militia units had been raised for local defence for centuries. The practice was codified in 1285 when the Statute of Winchester was passed and all males aged between 15 and 60 were expected to arm themselves in case they were called for service in the militia. Local Commissioners of Array or the Lord Lieutenants of the county were given the responsibility in the sixteenth century of ensuring these groups were raised adequately and it is their muster records that form the present-day archive for militia units during the Tudor and Stuart periods. These local authorities would forward their muster rolls to the Exchequer or the Privy Council and most of these rolls can be found at The National Archives.

The muster rolls are organized by county, hundred and then parish. The rolls list all male residents who were eligible to be called to arms if required. The earliest known rolls survive from 1522 and the amount of information given on a roll would vary. Some may provide individual ages, occupations and/or income (as individual wealth would determine what arms the men would be expected to provide). Other rolls may be comparatively brief and simply list the total number of eligible men in the parish. As mentioned, the majority of these rolls are at the National Archives (in the Exchequer series and the State Paper series), although some may also be found at local record offices and at The British Library. The easiest method of locating which muster rolls survive for a particular locality and where they are kept is by referring to Gibson and Dell’s
Tudor and Stuart Muster Rolls – A Directory of Holdings in the British Isles
(Federation of Family History Societies, 1991).

In 1757 the Militia Act reintroduced militia regiments into each county of England and Wales. These regiments would serve only in Britain and Ireland and not abroad. Each parish had to provide a number of suitable males to serve but, as there were too few volunteers, a form of conscription was introduced. However, this system proved very unpopular and was abolished in 1831, with militia units continuing with volunteers thereafter.

The surviving records of this conscription process are of great genealogical relevance as local Justices of the Peace or county Lord Lieutenants had to provide annual lists of all men aged between 18 and
45 and a separate list of those chosen to serve. These lists are to be found in local archives and some may give details of each man, his occupation and age and his marital status (and sometimes children too) for each parish. Unfortunately, lists of every parish have not survived. It is best to consult Gibson and Medlycott’s
Militia Lists and Musters, 1757–1876
(Federation of Family History Societies, 2000) to ascertain what has survived for each locality.

The National Archives hold the main service records of men who served under the various militia forces from 1769 onwards. The militia was organized on a similar basis to the regular Army, with officers and other ranks.

•
 
Militia officer records:
Service records for militia officers can be found in the regular Army officer records in series WO 25 and WO 76. Additionally, WO 68 has the records of militia regiments including returns of officers’ services. Commissions can be found in HO 50 (1782–1840) and HO 51 (1758–1855). Relevant published sources include
Officers of the Several Regiments and Corps of the Militia
and the
Militia Lists
. The
London Gazette
also published details of appointments for militia officers.

•
 
Other rank records:
Relevant records for other ranks can be found in the following National Archives series:

    
  Attestation papers can be found in WO 96 (1806–1915). These records provide a service record of each individual and may also give birth details. The papers are arranged by the regular army regiment the militia regiment was attached to, and then alphabetically. WO 97/1091–1112 contains the attestation papers of local militia regiments for the years 1769 to 1854. These have been catalogued by individual name and it is possible to search by name online in The National Archives catalogue.