Almost a million men and women of the British and Commonwealth armed forces lost their lives in the Great War. Hardly a family, village or town was not affected by the loss. In virtually every case they are well documented and can be much easier to search than those who survived.

Many new family historians have told men that they found that they had a soldier, nurse, airman or sailor who died, but did not know how to go about determining when and how they died or where they are buried. Here's how.

Background

You will find my article on what happened to the bodies of the dead to give you a useful background knowledge.

The records of the dead

My article on tracing a soldier who died will help put you on the right track to finding all the details possible.

How can I find out how and where he died?

The information about the cemetery or memorial at which the soldier is commemorated (from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) will begin to give some clues. You will also find my article on interpreting a cemetery useful in discovering how the cemetery came into existence.

If you have followed my advice so far you will now know the soldier's unit and the date of his death. You can trace details about the circumstances of his death (at least, the location and events) by consulting the relevant published regimental history and in particular the unit war diary.

Other sources

There are growing numbers of privately produced rolls of honour, casualty databases, newspaper reports and family history websites on the internet. They would be worth searching. See my page on finding records of soldiers