Burned and Unburned WW1 Other Ranks Service Records

Tom Tulloch-Marshall
Military Genealogy & Operational Records Of The Great War

WW1 Other Ranks Burned & Unburned Service Records Searches
National Archives Record Classes WO363 & WO364
Myths ? - Results ? - The Real Statistics

The National Archives (PRO) quote a likely success rate of 40% when searching for the WW1 Service Record of any particular Soldier (that is strictly for Other Ranks, not Officers, who are a different matter altogether). That 40% is based on the estimated % survival rate of documents recovered from the fire of 1940 (record class WO363) and the added material which was sourced from the Ministry of Pensions (WO364). Other sources give different percentages, some as high as 60%, but as far as I can see these are simply wild guesses or deliberately over-enthusiastic claims. The Ministry of Defence website currently mentions a 25-30% likelihood of finding a record, which is probably the most accurate of the lot, - see below. In order to try to establish what the real situation is I have been been recording the outcome of Other Ranks service record searches for some considerable time, - the basic statistics being set out below. These results come entirely from searches commissioned by clients, so I have had no control over "who" was being searched for. The database, which is now well into three figures, is consequently about as "random" as could be hoped for. (All percentages are rounded to the nearest whole figure. The stats on this page will be periodically updated as more search results are added to the database).	statistics last updated 2/2/04

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Overall success rate ? = 33% (Actually it currently works out at 33.47%, which in some respects is a pity because it looks too "obvious", - but that's it, 33%). - Of which the Burned series records accounted for 76% and the unburned records 24% of the records found.

Does the old chestnut about men who were single being less likely to have a record in place than married men (ie men with dependents) hold water ?

Records found for men searched who were known to be married = 42% of the total found.
Records found for men searched who were known to be single = 42% of the total found.
No, that's not dodgy maths. It has been checked, double checked, triple checked. As of 2/2/04 both work out at 42%. The balance from 100% is accounted for by the men whose marital status was unknown, which is a not insignificant percentage of the total searched. The percentages above should therefore be taken as "indicative" rather than establishing any sort of rule, however they do seem to show that marital status is not a significant factor with regards to the likelihood of a record surviving.

Is there any noticeable difference in the success rate depending whether a man died in service or survived ?

Records found for men who died in service as a percentage of those searched who died in service = 26%
Records found for men who survived service as a percentage of those searched who survived service = 36%
Remember here that men who died in service are only being searched for in record class WO363 whilst men who survived are also being searched for in WO364, - but regardless of that it appears that death in service is not terribly relevant to the likelihood of a successful search.

What happens if you split the "died in service" results according to whether the men were married or not ?

Total found who died in service and were single as a percentage of of those searched who died in service and were single = 48%
Total found who died in service and were married as a percentage of of those searched who died in service and were married = 25%
The discrepancy from 100% is made up by men whose service records did not contain definitive information about their marital status, and whose marital status was not known from other sources, which is maybe throwing the results out of kilter a bit. Nevertheless, the man having been married does not seem to influence the likelihood of finding a record.

Is there any noticeably better success rate when searching for men who had Silver War Badge entitlement ?
Not so far. The overall success rate searching for men with SWB entitlement is currently 27%, - not significantly off the overall average find rate of 33%. Breaking that down :-

Total service records found for men with SWB entitlement in the burned series documents as a percentage of the men searched who were known to have SWB entitlement = 18%
Total service records found for men with SWB entitlement in the unburned series documents as a percentage of the men searched who were known to have SWB entitlement = 9%
The current database is probably still too small to give a meaningful return, - but there you have it, SWB entitlement seems to have no significant effect at all.
Does it matter which Regiment or Corps a man served with ? - Seems not, which is probably due to the way in which the burned series documents were originally archived (which is a partially speculative comment, by the way).
Does it matter what letter of the alphabet a man's surname begins with ? - Now that is an interesting question ! - At the moment the database is probably too small to make a truly valued judgement, but there are "indications" that maybe it does.
Other "useful advice" to listen out for - and promptly ignore !
> "The First World War soldier's and NCO's records of the .. Guards Regiments .. were not stored with the other regiment's records, which sustained the bombing in 1940." (National Archive information leaflets. - I'm not quite sure how you "sustain" bombing, but regardless of that - if you can get anybody to wager that the statement above is correct then take them up on it, for the maximum amount possible. It will be the easiest money you ever make).
> Unburned records class WO364 only contains the records of men who received a pension ("standard advice", and even printed on the spines of the indexes to the WO364 films) - I probably hear that five times a day and .............................. Anyway, ignore it, it's not true).
> Etc ...........


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