British Military Records: Difference between revisions

''[[England]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png]] [[British_Military_Records|Military Records]]''  

[[Image:English Civil War Uniform.jpg|thumb|right]]Military records are potentially of great genealogical value and may provide information not found in any other source. These records identify individuals who served or were eligible to serve in the military. Military service (other than the militia) was usually a lifetime career. Officers came from the upper classes; soldiers usually came from the poor. On occasion, compulsory conscription was enforced and even "press-gangs" were used.  

Britain's armed forces comprise, in order of seniority, the Royal Navy (including the Royal Marines), Army and Royal Air Force. Other units can include local militia, fencibles, yeomanry and territorial units of the army. These are briefly discussed at the end of this section.  

{{Wikipedia|Military history of the United Kingdom}}  

Military histories or regimental histories are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:  

'''GREAT BRITAIN - MILITARY HISTORY'''  

The first permanent naval fleet was formed during the reign of King Henry VIII (1509–1547). For many years Britain had the strongest navy in the world. The earliest surviving navy records are from 1617, but the majority of the extensive collection date from the mid-1600s. Many records are available only at The National Archives.  

You can usually find navy officers in the Navy Lists (1782 to the present) or in the Index to Commission and Warrant Books (1695 to 1742). See the sub-heading of "Lists of Officers" in this section for details.  

(Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines)  

The Royal marines originally maintained military discipline on navy vessels. It has been a separate corps of the military since 1755, although under the control of the Admiralty and forming part of the Naval Service. Alphabetically arranged records of marines exist from 1790, some by enlistment date and others by discharge date. Service records up to 1926 can be accessed online via TNA.  

The army began as a permanent organization in 1660. Earlier armies were raised as needed, usually as county militia units. The oldest regiment is the Honourable Artillery Company, formed in 1537. For information on pre-1660 military records, see the handbooks listed at the end of this section. The Soldier in Later Medieval England database has names of about 250,000 soldiers.  

Originally the responsibility for directing the British Army fell under the command of the staff of the National War Office. Thus, the category for records in The National Archives of England is labeled WO for locating all Army collections. Now the army is run by comissioned officers.<br>

'''Pre-1914'''  

The application forms and guidlines can be found here: [http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/Personnel/ServiceRecords/MakingARequestForInformationHeldOnThePersonnelRecordsOfDeceasedServicePersonnel.htm UK Veteran's Agency]  

Formed on 1st April 1918 by merging the aviation branches of the existing services, namely the&nbsp;Royal Flying Corps (Army) and the Royal Naval Air Service (Royal Navy). This merger created the totally independent Royal Air Force (RAF), and is the oldest air force in the world.  

The RAF maintains its own records archive although officers papers are downloadable (£) from TNA here: [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?CatID=43&searchType=browserefine&pagenumber=1&query=*&queryType=1 RAF Officers records.]&nbsp;Other ranks service records are not online but if service ended prior to 1920, can be accessed at TNA. Post-1920 records are dealt with in the same way as army &amp; Navy records under FOI requests(see above).  

There are a large number of records held at TNA that can be researched such as Station and Squadron record books; photo albums and so forth.  

'''<u>The Commonwealth War Graves Commission</u>'''  

Post-WW2 casualties can be found listed at the [http://www.veterans-uk.info/afm2/index.php Armed Forces Memorial ]website.  

*[http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1003-Intro.htm Casualty lists of the Royal and Dominion Navies 1889-2009], complied by Don Kindell ([http://www.naval-history.net Naval-History.Net])

&nbsp;  

*[http://www.petergh.f2s.com/flashes.html Formation signs ]were first used by the British Army in WW1 in order to provide an easy method of visual identification of the various units.  

*[http://www.fireandfury.com/britinfo/divmarkings.pdf Vehicle&nbsp;Markings]&nbsp;in 21st Army Group 1944-1945<br>

Tokens or medals have been awarded to British service personnel since the medieval times although the first officially&nbsp;named campaign medal is the Waterloo Medal (1815). The Military General Service Medal instituted in 1847, covered a retrospective period&nbsp;and was&nbsp;awarded to all army personnel that had served on active campaigns between 1793-1815. Each medal was named to the recipient along with his unit details. A clasp (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a bar) bearing the name of the relevant campaign or battle was attached to the ribbon suspension, with subsequent clasps being added in the sequence in which they were earned. In some cases 10 or more campaign clasps were earned. 29 clasps were authorised in total.&nbsp;&nbsp;Altogether, over 25,000 medals were issued.  

These two medals started a precedent of&nbsp;issuing campaign medals that still continues to this day, with the RAF joining the process in 1918 by following the lead set by the Army. It is a widely collected field and there are many resources on the subject. From a&nbsp;family history perspective, knowing what medals a relative was entitled to can lead to&nbsp;fascinating&nbsp;journies of discovery as well as the medal themselves providing useful information.&nbsp;<br>

Brave conduct, meritorious service and so forth have long been awarded publicly. Since the 19th century, such awards to the military have generally taken medallic form&nbsp;although&nbsp;it has historically been shown that a reward may also involve a promotion or a share of the spoils, particularly if at sea and an enemy vessel was captured,  

As such, honours and awards tend to be publicly announced in&nbsp;the London Gazette newspaper. The online search archive can require a certain&nbsp;amount of skill to find what or rather who you are searching for but it can yield fantastic results: [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/search London Gazette Archive]&nbsp;<br>

WW1 Army medal&nbsp;index cards&nbsp;are available through [http://www.ancestry.co.uk www.ancestry.co.uk]&nbsp; - if you have a subscription they are free. Otherwise you will have to pay £2 fee to download it if you get it through&nbsp;The National Archives website: [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?CatID=10&searchType=browserefine&pagenumber=1&query=*&queryType=1 Medal Index Cards]&nbsp;. These cards contain details of name, rank, service number(s), unit(s) as well as confirmation of medal entitlement. Some of the cards have additional information on the reverse&nbsp;such as theatre of operations, home addresses, next of kin and so forth. Only Ancestry have copied both sides of these cards.&nbsp;&nbsp; Information on how to decipher the Medal Index Cards available at Ancestry and TNA can be found at [http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/mic.htm http://www.1914-1918.net/grandad/mic.htm].  

The [http://www.britishmedalforum.com British Medals Forum]&nbsp;is probably about as definitive a website as one can find when it comes to the subject of British medals of any type. A huge fount of knowledge resides on the forum and membership is free.  

[[Image:British Military2.jpg|thumb|right|369x577px]]Before you can use British military records, you must determine the specific name or number of the army regiment or navy ship name[s] on which your ancestor served. For suggestions on finding this information, see "Search Strategies" at the end of this section.  

Once you know the ship name[s] or the regiment name or number, the following records may help you trace your ancestor’s career, age, and birthplace:  

[[Image:Wo12book.png|thumb|left]]"Muster Rolls and Pay Rates" were monthly accounts that were kept of military enlistment and pay schedules.&nbsp; They were kept for privates up through officers and may contain valuable information such as "good conduct" awards, punishments, special assignments, and the like.&nbsp; A commanding officer made every effort to list everyone on his muster rolls since the number of men determined his funding. The records usually list each person assigned to a ship or regiment at the muster date, his age on joining, the date he joined, the place where he joined, and sometimes information such as a dependent list (in later army musters) and birthplace (on sea musters from 1770). Muster records for the Royal Artillery are the earliest, beginning in 1708.&nbsp; Other army musters exist for 1760 to 1878. After 1790, they were kept in bound volumes.<u><ref>Hamilton-Edwards, Gerald (1977). In Search of Army Ancestry. Phillimore, p. 73.</ref></u>&nbsp; Navy musters cover 1667 to 1878. Naval musters contain "alphabets" (indexes organized by the first letter of the surname) from 1765.These records can also be used to track the movements of a specific individual.  

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These records begin in 1732 and end in 1878. They cover guards, infantry, cavalry, and household troops. According to the National Archives these records also include special groups, such as colonial troops, various foreign legions, special regiments, and other depots.<br>

&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; These records show an individual's enlistment dates, his movements and dischage dates as show below, notice the sections under "First Muster, Second Muster, and Third Muster", these are the locations of the soldiers at the time of their pay. <br>

*Photo curtesy of the National Archives at Kew, London, England<br>

If the information you seek is after 1868. there is a "Roll of Married Establishment" which lists husbands and wives as shown below:<br>

*Photo curtesy of the National Archives at Kew, London, England<br>

If you are unable to visit the National Archives, they provide a document service at £0.40 per page.<br>

The army description book for each regiment includes each recruit’s full name on "attestation" (enlistment), age when he joined, place where he joined, birthplace, previous trade, and physical description. Most books start about 1805 and continue to 1850. Many no longer exist. Similar records were kept for each navy ship from 1790, but many were never turned in or no longer exist.  

In 1806 the War Office compiled the first return of service, listing all men in the army. The scope, content, and frequency of returns of service vary greatly. Returns of officers’ service tend to be more complete, including the names of the officer and his wife and children; birth and marriage dates and places; and a complete summary of stations, regiments, and promotions.  

Similar returns of naval officers begin in 1817. The naval returns are indexed at The National Archives (ADM 10). See [[England Archives and Libraries]] for the address.  

Pay records include the following:  

*Half-pay registers contain officers’ names, ranks, regiments, dates of first half-pay, rates of pay, and sometimes death dates.

Ship logs exist from 1673. While they usually give information only on position, weather, and sightings of other ships, records of shipboard events may include names of individual seamen.  

From 1853 navy ratings (seamen) were assigned continuous service numbers. The records gave name, birth date and place, description, and ship. Brief career details were later added. From 1872 until 1892 merchant seamen were included.  

These records tell which ship a man served on. For officers these start in 1846. Those for warrant officers and seamen cover 1802 to 1871.  

These records of army service are available only for those soldiers who were discharged to pension. Corresponding records for those who left the Army for reasons other than discharge were destroyed. These records vary over time and even between soldiers. They usually include attestation and discharge documents. They often contain the reason for discharge and details on age, birthplace, and trade or occupation on enlistment. They are arranged by regiment, then alphabetically by surname for the years 1760 through 1872. The records for 1873 to 1882 are alphabetically arranged by corps (cavalry, foot soldiers, artillery, guards, and so forth). From 1883 to 1914, these records are arranged in one alphabetical series.  

It was possible to have a qualified pension commuted to allow a soldier to immigrate to British colonies.&nbsp; A list of those who did, between the years 1830-1839, is found online at [http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/chelseab.htm TheShipsList.com].  

Army chaplains throughout the British Empire kept records that list the baptisms, marriages, and burials of officers, soldiers, and their families. These returns (from 1760 to 1971) are indexed and are available by correspondence from the Office of National Statistics (formerly Registrar General). Indexes for {{FHL|731507|title-id|disp=births 1796–1880}}, for {{FHL|732266|title-id|disp=marriages 1796–1955}}, and for {{FHL|720239|title-id|disp=deaths 1786–1880}}, are available on microfiche at the Family History Library.  

Regiments kept birth, marriage, and death records for officers and men. Births and baptisms are indexed. These records (1790–1924) are available by correspondence from the Office of National Statistics (formerly Registrar General). The indexes are available on microfiche at the {{FHL|732111|title-id|disp=Family History Library}}.  

Published annually, these records give an officer’s name, rank, regiment or ship, and date of commission. See:  

*''Navy List''. London, England: several publishers, 1782–. (Family History Library book {{FHL|942 M25gba|disp=942 M25gba}}; films {{FHL|918928|film|disp=918928}}–940, {{FHL|990323|film|disp=990323}}–326.) The Navy List names all commissioned officers, including masters, pursers, surgeons, chaplains, yard officers, coast guardsmen, and reservists.

Militia lists (beginning as early as 1297) contain the names of men eligible for military service. Militia musters are lists of men in the militia. Early militia lists and most militia musters contain only the men’s names. A brief explanation of musters and the location of available pre-1757 lists are given in:  

*Medlycott, Mervyn, and Jeremy Gibson. ''Militia Lists and Musters, 1757–1876''. 3rd Editor. Solihull, England: Federation of Family History Societies Publications, Ltd., 1994. (Family History Library book {{FHL|942 M2gj|disp=942 M2gmm}}.BYU Harold B Lee Library book '''CS 414 .X1 G533 2001'''.)

Many other records are available, such as records on medals, casualties, promotions, desertion, and court martials. The following military branches have separate records:  

These records are at The National archives. For further information on military records for branches of the service other than navy or regular army, see the military record handbooks at the end of this section.<br>

Pre-1914 records for both the army and the navy are at [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/militaryhistory/ The National Archives.]  

MILITARY RECORDS - NAVY  

It is difficult to locate an individual’s record without knowing his ship or regiment. If you do not know this, you may find it in other types of records. Once you know the regiment or ship, consult the muster rolls, records of service, or other records available for that ship or regiment. Strategies for finding the ship or regiment follow.  

''Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660–1815.'' Three Volumes. N.p., n.d. (Family History Library book {{FHL|942 M23cs|disp=942 M23cs}}, films {{FHL|908026|film|disp=909026}}–027. BYU&nbsp;FHL&nbsp;book '''V 11 .G7 A52 vol.1'''.)  

The resorces listed below may assist you in your research:  

White, Arthur S. comp. ''A Bibliography of Regimental Histories of the British Army''. Dallington, East Sussex, England: Naval and Military Press Ltd., 1992. (Family History Library book 942 M23was.)