Introduction

The military career of every soldier was recorded in great detail. His enlistment, postings, health, conduct and eventual discharge were all written down on official army forms. The forms used varied depending on the type of soldier Grandad was. The records give the most comprehensive view of a soldier's army career.

On the other hand, the service records provide very little information on what the soldier actually did and where he went. They are often hard to read and full of army abbreviations and jargon, which you might need help to interpret. Copies of the various papers were kept in a single central file. A given man's file can contain very little or a great deal, depending on his circumstances and the various actions that thinned out the files once they were archived after the war.

What exists and how do I find them?

For men who continued to serve after 1920 or who returned for service later, such as in WW2

This applies both to officers and men of the "other ranks". The records of these men exist but are not yet released to the public. You may be able to obtain a copy: here is everything you need to know

For men (of the "other ranks") who were discharged by 1920, which is the vast majority of WW1 soldiers

There are a number of places where you might find the service record of a soldier.

>> The "burnt series". Most of the records were held at a War Office building at Arnside Street in London, which was destroyed by fire resulting from a German air raid in 1940. Well over half of the records here there were lost, and many of those that survived are damaged by smoke and water.

These records were transferred to the National Archives and are viewable by the public. They are held at the in document series WO363. The original documents are frail and access is only by microfilm. This is free of charge but of course you need to visit the National Archives in person or hire help to do so.

The records are at time of writing being scanned and can be accessed, for a fee, from Ancestry. It is the microfilm images that are being scanned, not the originals.

Search British Army WWI "Burnt Series" Service Records now (opens in new window)

>> The "unburnt series". It was discovered that some of the records were not in the building when it was burned. They had been taken to the Ministry of Pensions for analysis.

These are also held in the National Archives and are in series WO364. They have also been microfilmed. WO364 has sometimes, erroneously, been described as pension records: it is not - it is a collection of a sample of records that happen to be of men who were awarded a pension.

The records have been scanned and can be accessed, for a fee, from Ancestry. It is the microfilm images that have been scanned, not the originals.

Search British Army WWI "Pensions" Service Records now (opens in new window)

The two collections are not exclusive: we have found some examples where a man's record (parts of it) are in both WO363 and WO364.

>> The Guards. The Guards regiments maintained a separate set of records and these are accessible via the Archivists of those regiments, all of whom can be contacted at the respective regimental headquarters at Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, London SW1E 6HQ. Some require payment for supplying a copy, others invite a donation. In all cases, you should at first write, asking for a copy of the form that the regimental archivist requires in order to carry out a search.

We have found plenty of Guards records in WO364; not so many in WO363.

>> The Household regiments. If the man served in the Household regiments [Household Battalion, Life Guards or Royal Horse Guards] his records should be intact. They are held in collection WO400 at the National Archives. The Household Cavalry Museum, Combermere Barracks, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 3DN, also has a set. Written enquiries are welcomed but enquirers are recommended to contact the Museum for access conditions before visiting in person.

>>The little known pension records PIN26. There is a collection of service records held at the National Archives, which is an even smaller sample of men discharged to pension. They are not available online and have not been microfilmed. Search the Catalogue at the National Archives website using the man's surname and the series number PIN26. But don't hold your hopes high - we are talking about very small numbers of records.

Overall, there is only around a 1 in 3 chance of your finding a particular soldier's service record.

>>The Royal Naval Division. If the man served in the Royal Marine Light Infantry or the Royal Naval units of the Royal Naval Division, his service record can be searched and downloaded from the Documents Online section of the National Archives website. There is a fee for downloading the documents.

Officers records

Unlike those of the "other ranks", officer's records have by and large survived.

The records have been released to the public and are held in collections WO339 and WO374 at the National Archives. They are not online, so you need to visit the archives in person or hire help to do it for you. WO339 holds records of men commssioned into the regular army and WO374 those commissioned into the Territorial Force. If he has an unusual name you may be able to determine the piece number by searching the Catalogue at the National Archives website; if not, there is an index in WO338.

However: the records of officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps appear to have been destroyed, and it is unusual to find the record of an officer at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or above. No one, not even the National Archives, seems to know whether these records exist and if so where they are.

The records of women who served.

The records of women who served with the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (later the Queen Mary's Auxiliary Army Corps) have been scanned and can be searched and downloaded from the Dicuments Online section of the National Archives website. There is a fee payable to download a record.

Common misunderstandings

There are no separate pension records and the collection in WO364 (described above) are not pension records: they have been described as such, misleadingly, by Ancestry.

But what do these records say?

Army service records can be very difficult to understand. They are full of jargon, acronyms, abbreviations, numbers and squiggles. And they dont actually tell you where the man went or what he did. They very rarely tell you his role: for example, whether he was a machine gunner or signaller in an infantry battalion.

You should find the Long, Long Trail sections on army abbreviations, unit definitions, types of soldier etc useful in putting his story together.

If you need to search for records or interpret what you have found, you will find our professional service fourteeneighteen|research helpful.