I receive a number of queries from people asking how they might go about discovering the service history of a family member who fought in the First War. The next few paragraphs might help.

Most people who start down the track of trying to discover some of the history of a relative from the First War usually start a bit too late.  Most of us wish that we had either spoken to the relative in question before they died, or maybe before our own parents died.  That’s how it was for me. I had very little to go on.  It is a truism to say that the more information you have the easier the task will be.  But whatever you have, that’s what you have to start with.  So here are a few pointers that may help.

The Army was very hierarchical in WW2, Officers got considerably more recognition than NCOs or Other Ranks (OR), so it can be a lot easier to track down the history of an Officer. Every year there is an Army List produced which lists every officer, giving some brief details of each one. That does not exist for NCOs and ORs.  Also, battalion histories and War Diaries will often mention officers by name, but only very rarely will an NCO or OR be named.

If all you have is a name and initials, plus the service in which the relative served, that can be enough sometimes to make a start, but ideally you want to have at least one more item, the individuals service number. Next question, do you know if the individual died in the war or if they survived. If you know that they died, then the next place to visit is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site.  This site will allow you to search on a name and initials to discover when the individual died and where they are either buried, or if they have no known grave, on which memorial they are remembered.  Very often this entry in the register will also include the battalion and regiment in which he served. It will also give the rank of the individual when he died. Unfortunately it can be easier to trace an individual who died than one who lived.

When you know the relative’s battalion and regiment you can often do some work on the web to see if the regiment has a regimental museum, and also a listing of the actions in which the battalion was engaged during the war. There are also a lot of web sites for regimental associations. The museums and associations will normally have copied of battalion histories and war diaries. Again, these are likely to only mention Officers by name, but they are useful for seeing which action your relative might have fought or died in, especially when you have the date of death from CWGC site.  There is a whole listing of regimental museums on www.armymuseums.org.uk.

A real treasure trove is the National Archives at Kew, the old Public Records Office, they are also on the web and have a lot of online info to assist people in their research. The 1901 census can also be useful in finding family members.  If you are serious about looking up an individual then you must visit Kew.  Here they hold all service records for all soldiers, but a word of caution. During WW2 the old records were in a building that was bombed, so a fair proportion of records were destroyed by fire, my grandfather’s included.  The records are held on film, and those that are not burnt have a lot of interesting info on the individuals. Also at Kew are the records of the medals awarded, these are separate to the records that might have been burnt.  In my case, although I could not see my grandfather’s service record I was able to look him up in the medal rolls and that then allowed me to discover the battalions in which he served.  Because he survived the war, there was no record at the CWGC.  Knowing the battalions in which he served I was then able to get copies of the relevant battalion diaries from the regimental museum and so find out where the battalions had served and which actions he was likely to have been involved in.  My grandfather was captured by the Germans on 21 March 1918, and we had a copy of the telegram telling my grandmother, so that gave me one fixed date to work on, I also had a few pages of a diary he kept in early 1916 when he was in Egypt. Working from a few fixed dates I was then able to build up a reasonable picture of where he had been. Kew is really worth the visit, especially for reading the original handwritten battalion war diaries.

A very useful book for working your way through the various records available is “Army Service records of the First World War”. This is a book produced by the Public Records Office (now the National Archive) and is available through their web site or the on-site bookshop.  Mine cost £9.99.  There is also a good book called “Bringing Uncle Albert Home” by David Whithorn, in the book he describes how he worked from some pieces of information he had to build up the picture of what happened to his Uncle.

If you have the chance, talk to family members to see what they can remember, when they have died it’s too late!