Researching Soldiers of the Great War
As veterans of the Great War slip from living memory there has, conversely, been a growing interest in them recent years. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren increasingly wish to understand the war experiences of the men staring out from sepia-tinted photographs. Few of us do not have an ancestor who served or died in the Great War, the first war in which almost the entire male population (and many more females than legend would have us believe) of the nation were mobilised to do their duty.
Although the Great War ended less than 100 years ago and many of its survivors lived until relatively recently researching the lives of those who took part is a daunting and difficult task for those with no experience of genealogical or military research. In the pages that follow I hope to provide suggestions and solutions to many of the more common questions and problems in the hope that families will rediscover their relations and see a man, rather than just an image, in those dusty, yellowing photographs and a life behind the weathering name on the local war memorial.
(As proof for just what can be achieved with nothing more than a photograph, read the story of Joshua Tetlow)
Where do I begin?
The starting point of research varies enormously, from those with a detailed collection of facts passed down orally through the family to those with nothing more than a name, a photograph or a collection of medals to go on.
If all you have is a name or medals then there is no problem. If all you have is a photograph then the challenge is much more significant and may ultimately prove insurmountable. Nevertheless a lot can still be deduced.
Using Photographs.
The following two photographs indicate some of the aspects a photograph can reveal. On the left is an officer, on the right an enlisted man. The 'cut 'of the uniforms is quite distinct and a clue. Also for officers look out for lapels, a tie, the cross-chest leather belt, badges on the lapels and the 'curly' decoration near the cuffs of the sleeve. The uniform of an enlisted man is much simpler. In this case he has the rank of private as no rank stripes can be seen on the sleeves of the upper-arm.
A photograph (unless inscribed) will not give you a name but it may reveal the regiment. The clue to look for is the badge. The officer on the left has badges on either lapel. They are not crystal clear but allow us to narrow down the field. The shape of the badge is that of a Fusilier regiment. The private on the right wears his badge on the hat. Sadly, in this case it is obscured. However the black buttons (as opposed to silver) indicate that the private served in a so-called 'rifle regiment'. If the badge is visible then all you need to do is match it with the regiment. This can be done relatively easily by navigating to a remarkably useful website: Military Badges.
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A skilled and knowledgeable military enthusiast will see much more in these photographs. To develop more expertise yourself I recommend a visit to Jim Grundy's 'Researching Great War Postcards' on the Western Front Association website, where much more can be learned about how to 'read' photographs (choose 'Research Pages' from the main menu and scroll down until you find Jim's piece).
(Incidentally, the officer above is a 2nd Lieutenant Roberts, 2/7th Royal Welsh Fusiliers; photograph kindly loaned by Catherine Crossley. The private is Herbert Burman, 1/7th Sherwood Foresters.)
I have a Name!
Excellent. This makes research so much easier. The next question to ask (if you don't already know) is did he survive the war?
If the answer is 'No'. Bizarrely it is often easier to learn more about a man who died in the war than a man who survived. This is partly because of the indispensable website run by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. If you click on the following link to the CWGC site you will go straight to the relevant pages. Input your name, year of death if known (if not choose First World War), arm of service (i.e. Navy) and birthplace (i.e. UK and former colonies). Only the name is essential, the other aspects help narrow down the return. However I would recommend that under date you select First World War at the very least or your returns will include names from other conflicts. Now click on 'Search the Register' and a list of all those who match your request specifications will appear. (TIP: If the surname is a 'common' one such as Jones, Smith, Williams etc. then it would be advisable to choose a specific year as the CWGC database will only list a maximum of 100 names. Start, say, with 1914 and if this does not give you 'your man', try again with 1915 and so on.)
The names in the list will be hyperlinked in blue. When you click on the names you will get a page with, at the very least, details of battalion, regiment, date of death and place of burial, with details of how to find the relevant cemetery if it is in the care of the CWGC. Fantastic! If you are lucky you may get additional details such as age, names of next of kin and addresses. Now you can really begin to get somewhere.
'Soldiers Died in the Great War'. The Public Record Office, some major libraries and research enthusiasts such as yours truly, will have access to the 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' CD-ROM produced by the Naval & Military Press. This awesome (and expensive) database has details of every man (army only) who died during the Great War whilst in service. Although there are some gaps in detail and occasional spelling errors it will typically show you information such as;
AISBETT. Frederick Joseph, b. Gateshead-on-Tyne. e. Gateshead-on-Tyne. 46721. L/CPL. Killed in action. France &Flanders. 16/06/17. FORMERLY 30449. DURHAM L.I. Northumberland Fusiliers. 13th Battalion.
b = born, e = enlisted. Occasionally you will also get an 'r' indicating place of residence.
You can also look for a Death Certificate. For this you need the General Records Office (GRO) Family Records Centre at 1 Myddleton Street, London EC1R 1UW.
If the answer is 'Yes'. There is really only one way to go now - the National Archives in London. Great if you live in the South-East, useless for the rest of us. The NA has an online catalogue and some online records but they will not carry out research requests. If a trip to the PRO is out of the question you could always hire an independent professional researcher listed on the NA website.
What do I need from the National Archives?
You will need, mainly, two things: the Medal Index Card (MIC) and the Service Record.
Medal Index Card. These are held on microfiche and it can take a while to track down the entry that interests you. The card will tell you many things, though you may need advice from PRO staff on how to decipher some of the acronyms and codes. The MIC should give you the following details: name, regiment, rank, regimental number, medal entitlement, theatre of war served in, date of entry into the war and general remarks e.g. date of discharge. You will ideally want to know which battalion of the regiment your man served in so you may need to look at the original medal roll (by following references on the MIC) to discover this. Details of some of the more common medals can be found on this site. MIC's can now be searched online. Go to the relevant part of the NA website here.
Service Records. You will need to look in the WO363 archive for soldiers who died or survived the war and WO364 for soldiers discharged for whatever reason. Perusal of these lists will give you the microfiche film number to select. These records can be a bit of a pain as alphabetical ordering cannot be guaranteed. Also it is vital to be aware of the fact that about 60% of these records were fire damaged during the 1940 blitz. Consequently you may be disappointed in your search. Fortunately there are still possibilities. These 'burnt' records are being microfilmed and the project should be complete by the middle of 2002-2003. (Note: their is an interesting view on these papers which you can read by clicking here.)
For officers look in WO339, providing that they left the army by the end of 1920. Territorial Force officers are in WO374.
If your man served in the Canadian army then you have access to the wonderful National Archives of Canada were, if you are fortunate, you will be able to download Attestation Papers for free. Go to the relevant part of the Canadian Archives website here.
How can I discover what happened to my man?
Hopefully you now have plenty of details about your man. It is now possible to begin reconstructing his war experience. A library with a good selection of books on the Great War, the inter-library loan service and several websites should do the trick nicely.
Often, if a soldier was killed in action or died of wounds in the war (see 'e' below), the first desire is to understand how and where. In some cases this can be done with a degree of certainty. This is how to do it:
a) You need these details - battalion, regiment, date of death.
b) Navigate to either of the following recommended sites to figure out which division the battalion was serving in at the time of death: The British Army in the Great War or The Regimental Warpath.
c) Within the two above sites you will hopefully also be able to pinpoint the location of the division at the time of death and, maybe, identify any particular action the division was involved in at that time.
d) If you cross reference these details with the cemetery information from the CWGC website and a good map (such as Michelin 236 France, Nord) you should be able to locate the area in which your man lost his life.
e) If the soldier 'died of wounds' pinpointing the place of wounding and the circumstances is very difficult. As a rule of thumb men who died of wounds usually did so within about 3 days but, of course, there are many exceptions e.g. Private Benjamin Clarke, 50th (Calgary) Battalion, 4th Canadian Division, who took 5 months to succumb to his wounds.
Another exceptionally useful resource is the battalion War Diary. Every battalion had to keep one and the National Archives is, yet again, the place to go. However local regimental museums will have copies which may be easier to access. The quality of content of War Diaries varies between battalions but at the very least they will give locations on specific dates and record events that the commanding officer thought worthy of a mention. From this an outline of your mans movements and experiences can be compiled. War Diaries rarely refer to 'other ranks' by name but will refer to woundings and deaths of officers. Be aware that War Diaries are factual and often brief - they did not function as a general diary with descriptive prose! To track down the regimental museum that you want navigate through the Army website or visit the Military Museums site.
Finally, of course, read lots of books! Most libraries will contain a few WWI books (dwarfed by the WWII collection) from the more popular authors such as Lyn Macdonald. More difficult to get, but often well worth it, are divisional or battalion histories. These are increasingly rare and valuable and their quality varies but they are usually well worth tracking down if one exists for the unit you are interested in. Two booksellers who are likely to be able to help are the Naval & Military Press and Ray Westlake