Researching WW1 Service Personnel

Some of you may wish to research soldiers and others involved in the Great War. For those with little experience, I thought it might be helpful to offer some guidance based on where I have found useful information.

Firstly, if you intend to research an individual in depth, it can become quite an expensive undertaking. Much of the available information is held on subscription (“pay”) websites, and unfortunately there is no single site that contains everything. In my own case, I work with a “research buddy” in Canada: they hold memberships to certain sites, while I subscribe to others, and we help one another by sharing findings. This approach may be worth considering for anyone wishing to keep costs to a minimum.

Who To Research?

The first question to consider is: who do you wish to research? This could be someone whose grave you are tending, a family member, or, my preferred approach, an individual identified through preliminary evidence, which you then research in full.

An excellent source of free evidence is archive.org which hosts many Rolls of Honour and requires no subscription. Examples include The Morayshire Roll of Honour, The Arbroath and District Roll of Honour, Aberdeen University Roll of Service and many other similar publications. One of my own favourites is De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour which can be found in 6 volumes.

While many Rolls of Honour provide only brief details, others include a full biography of the individual and, in some cases, a photograph. Another valuable route is through what the Imperial War Museum classifies as Additions to a Grave. These commemorate soldiers who are buried overseas or lost at sea, but are remembered on a family grave at home. This approach has the advantage of immediately providing family details, such as parents and sometimes siblings, along with a date of death. From experience, however, it is worth noting that this date can occasionally be slightly inaccurate.

FREE Sources

Some other Free research sources include the following:-

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Usually one of the first points of research which is pretty easy to use, don’t forget to look at the documentation at the bottom of the webpage which may give you additional information.
• Lives of the First World War – was a project initiated by the Imperial War Museum during the Great War Centenary period. It allowed volunteers to add information to individual profile pages for those who served in the First World War. Each serviceman or woman had a profile page created using data drawn from various sources, such as Medal Index Cards. Unfortunately, to the frustration of many volunteers, the website was frozen in its existing state in 2019. As a result, the amount of information available can be somewhat hit-or-miss. Nevertheless, it remains a worthwhile resource and is certainly worth checking.
• The National Archive – Although this site is generally associated with paid downloads, it now allows registered users to download up to 100 documents within a 30-day period at no cost. Before downloading, you are also able to preview documents, which is extremely helpful.
• I find this resource particularly valuable for research, especially when consulting Battalion War Diaries for the France and Flanders campaigns. However, the search system can be a little awkward to use. To locate War Diaries, I recommend the following approach: in the search field you will be given two options—Search website or Search records. Choose Search records. Then enter WO 95 followed by the regiment name, for example “WO 95 Scots Fusiliers”. This should return the various battalions within that regiment. You can then add the relevant items to your basket and proceed to checkout; just ensure you are logged in so the downloads remain free.
• The National Archives is also a useful source for Medal Index Cards if you prefer not to use subscription (“pay”) sites. It should be noted, however, that War Diaries for the Gallipoli Campaign are not available via The National Archives and can instead be accessed through Ancestry.

For the Records of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) later renamed Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) enter WO398. This group comprises of service records for women who served in the First World War and immediate post war period 1917 to 1920

For the records of Personal Records of medical staff enter WO399 followed by the name or leave the name blank to search all the records. There are over 15,000 First World War service records for nurses in series in this series who served in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve) and the Territorial Force Nursing Service during the First World War.

• A Street Near You – Set up by an ex-colleague from the Lives project, this site can be helpful by bringing links together for an individual from various sites, it is also linked to the CWGC and Lives site, so I tend to go here initially and follow the links to some other sites. Although currently it is only for those who died over the Great War period.
• The London Gazette or its partner the Edinburgh Gazette. This publication can provide information on Promotions, Gallantry Awards, Transfers etc. During the earlier part of the war the gallantry awards were often accompanied with the citation for the bravery award but later on these were omitted. It can be searched with a service number for Other Ranks which makes the search easier to conduct. With Regards to officers with no number but just a name, then you may need to play around with names before you get the entry eg John Ponsonby Smith may be relatively easy to find, but then he may be listed as John P Smith or just J P Smith.
• Long Long Trail – Although this site will not tell you information on an individual, it will tell you the structure of various units and their movements throughout the war and if they amalgamated etc It is a great go-to site to find out additional information about the structure of the army. I also find it useful when finding out where medical units were at certain dates to find out where an individual died.
• Find a Grave – This site is provided for photographs of headstones to be added and a great many military ones have been. On occasions people have also included links to siblings or parents or photographs of the deceased.
• RFC / RAF Casualty Cards – This card set is very helpful when researching those who served in the Royal Flying Corps, what they were flying, the courses they did and how they died.
• The Great War Forum – This is a very helpful group who offer advice from their various interests in the Great War. You can look through the previous topics or ask a question of your own. I recently used the forum to ask a question on the Somaliland Camel Corps when I was struggling to understand something and was given a fantastic response.
• Canadian Expeditionary Force – The Canadian Records are fantastic, there is a choice to view the first two pages of the Attestation Papers as these were digitised first but now it may also give you the option to view the whole record which has a wealth of information.
• New Zealand Archives – This should give you the full service records of a soldier. In the search field it is advisable to enter the surname and the service number to filter the results.
• Australian Imperial Force – The Australian WW1 Records are also fantastic and can easily contain up to 70 plus pages on some of the individuals.
• Irish Soldiers Records – The enlistment records of nearly 12,000 Irish soldiers from the disbanded Irish Regiments from the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. This search facility is hosted by the National Army Museum.
• International Committee of the Red Cross Prisoners of War Records – Shows you where some of the allied prisoners were imprisoned.
• British Warships of WW1 – The website is called Naval History but this page has a list of virtually every ship employed by the Royal Navy in WW1 including various smaller craft used for minesweeping and anti submarine defence etc.

Information from Pay Sites

There are several subscription (“pay”) sites that I use, most notably Ancestry and Find My Past. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and as mentioned previously, there is no single “go-to” site that contains everything. Other sites are also available, but I do not have personal experience of using them.

• Service Records – As many of you will know the majority of the Service Records for the soldiers were destroyed in the Blitz of WW2, however, on occasion some have survived although some partly burnt. These are beneficial for names, addresses, parents details, description of individuals, postings and many other facts, if you manage to trace one, you are well on your way to obtaining a great deal of information. If I have any recommendations for them, I would say to create a timeline as a great deal of the information is all over the place and not necessarily in order.
• Medal Index Cards – These Cards are a good way of finding the Units and Service number of the individual and also their rank. As the name indicates, it also tells you the medals the recipients were entitled to, whether that was the 1914 Star, 1914-15 Star or the Victory and British War Medals. If they have received the 14 or 14-15 Star the card will also include the date they went to the first Theatre of War and also which location that was i.e.(1) France. It may also mention SWB (Silver War Badge) for those who were discharged through illness or injury. It may also include if he was Mentioned in Dispatches. Guide to Medal Index Cards.
• Medal Rolls – These Rolls were not issued on a specific individual but were a list of soldiers in a Unit and their entitlement to a medal, the information on these are very similar to the Medal Index Cards but I tend to look at these primarily, as on occasions they say if the soldier was in different battalions within the same regiment. Guide to Medal Rolls.
• Soldiers Died in the Great War – This list was put together following the GW, it doesn’t hold a great deal of information but it can be helpful for providing a place of birth and place of enlistment, although I wouldn’t believe it 100%. If you have little information on the soldier it can be helpful. Guide to Soldiers Died in the Great War.
• Register of Soldiers Effects – This is available online only via Ancestry – and was a ledger which on the death of soldier was created to allocate his outstanding payment to a family member, often mentioned as a ‘Legate or Sole Legate. I find this ledger useful for identifying family and it sometimes also mentions the hospital or Casualty Clearing Station the individual died in. Then I would go to the Long Long Trail and find out the location of the Hospital or CCS at the time of the death. Guide to the Register of Soldiers Effects.
• Pension Cards – These can be very useful for information on family, next of kin, children including their dates of birth and addresses. On occasion it even tells you the cause of a death. I researched a soldier for someone who thought they were killed in action and the Pension Card was the only document I could find that said he had shot himself with a revolver. There are often multiple cards. These are accessible via The Western Front Association which I would recommend which is an annual membership and they send you excellent magazines on a quarterly basis. The Cards are also available on a pay site called Fold3.
• Silver War Badge Register – This register is available both on Ancestry and Find my Past and gives details of enlistment and discharge dates, it also gives the cause under the Kings Regulations why the individual was discharged and the Silver War Badge number which each badge is stamped with. I have found the register sometimes difficult to search as sometime the numbers are inputted inconsistently and often requires perseverance. Guide to the Silver War Badge.
• Census Records – These are available on both Ancestry and Find my Past. The Censuses which are generally relevant are 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911. In these you will find the names of who was in the family household, address, a circa year of birth and the occupation and relationship to the head of the household. One thing to note however, the 1911 Census for Scotland is not available in the previously mentioned sites but is on the pay site, Scotlands People.
• British News Archive – This is another pay site which includes a large number of local Newspapers from throughout the U.K., it is by no means complete for example they are currently missing the war years for the Banffshire Newspapers but it is certainly worth investigating for photos of those killed or injured and biographies too. It is often my starting point, in that I look through an article and choose someone who has a biography and research the information after that. Many of the local newspapers are of course also free to view from your local library when they are open as another option.

These research tools are by no means the full scope of the facilities available, however, they offer a good grounding to be able to complete a research on an individual.