Military History

General Military Information

British Military Records Through The Ages

When you are searching for Military Service Records there are a few important pieces of information that you need to have. These are:

• Full name of the individual. If you have as full a name as possible this will make tracking your individual easier. E.g. John Brown. There must be hundreds of John Browns. If you have a middle name it will make things a bit easier. E.g. John W Brown.
• The Service in which he served. Army, Royal Navy or Air Force.
• Rank and Regiment or Naval Ship or Squadron. Having the service number can be particularly helpful.
• Find out when the person served; pre First World War, First World War and after 1920.
• The more details you have the better. Having the dates of enlistment and demobilisation can be helpful as well.

• Military Records

• Researching Military History at The National Archives

• The Asplin Military History Resources

• British Battles

• Imperial War Museum London

• Imperial War Museum Photograph Search

• British Military & Criminal History in The Period 1900 to 1999

• Information about various wars

• British Empire: Armed Forces

• Family Tree Forum Online Magazine ~ November 2007

• Family Tree Forum Online Magazine ~ November 2008

Before 1914

• The Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-1880

• Archive of Victorian Wars

• Victorian Wars Forum

• For the Anglo-Boer Wars see South Africa: Military History

After 1914

• World War One

• World War Two

• Tales From WW1 & WW2

• Service Personel

• The Scots at War

• 16th Irish Division - The Role of The Irish in The War

A-Z List of Ex-Military Service Organisations

• A-Z List of Ex-Military Service

• Ex-Service Organisations

Medals, Badges and Decorations

World War One Medal Card

• Military book and Medals Anglo-Boer war 1899-1902

• Indian Mutiny Medal Recipients

• Military Images

• Downloadable Pictures and Descriptions of UK Military Medals

• List of Victoria Cross Recipients by Nationality

• British Medal Forum

• Interpreting Campaign Medal Index Cards

• MOD-Service Records and Medals

• Military Badge identification

• Campaign Medals 1902-1939

• Campaign Medals First World War 1914-18

• Medal cards

Prisoners of War and Internees

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva keeps lists of all known POWs and internees of all nationalities for the Second World War. Enquiries concerning these lists should be directed to:

Archives Division and Research Service
International Committee of the Red Cross
19 Avenue de la Paix,
Geneva CH-1202,
Switzerland

Email: archives.gva@icrc.org

• The German Prisoners of World War 2

• WW2 Prisoners of War: Stalag Luft I

• Behind the Wire. POW 1914-1918

• Cowra prisoner of war campsite

• COFEPOW ~ The Children (& Families) of the Far East Prisoners of War

• Prisoners of War 109TH Medical Battalion (1942 - 1945) WW2 & Beyond

• The Holocaust History Project

• The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals

Book: Prisoners of War, British Army, 1939 - 1945

That lists alphabetically over 107,000 British Army POWs of all ranks held in Germany or in German occupied territories in World War Two. It gives each POW's camp, POW number, surname, initials, rank, army number and regiment/corps.

It was re-published in 1990, by J B Hayward and Sons of Polstead, Suffolk

Women in the Military

• Reminiscences of Land Army Girls

• Times past - Land Army Girls

• Brief history - Wrens

• World War I Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service QAIMNS Nurses

• Voluntary Aid Detachments

• The History of Voluntary Aid Detachment

• Postcard Images of VAD Life

• The Canadian Military Heritage Project, Women in the War

• The Auxiliary Territorial Service - ATS

• The Women's Army Corps

• Scarlet Finders - British Military Nurses 1875-1925

Woolwich Arsenal Employee Records

At one time there were an estimated 80,000 employees.

Carole Jones
General Manager
Support Services
DSDC Llangennech
Mwrwg Road
Llangennech Llanelli
Carms SA14 8YP

Tel: 01554 822497

If anyone requests a search of these records then it would be helpful if they back the cause and have a whinge about records being held in Wales rather than at the Arsenal (Heritage Center in Woolwich) and also stress the importance of not destroying records after the 100 year rule which is based from the employees DOB (although it is thought that they have been fairly reasonable on this one and so chances are they may still have the record).

This link explains more about the Arsenal - Royal Arsenal

Other Resources

Shop: The Queens Shilling specialises in military books and items:

Commercial Road,

Parkstone,

Poole

Dorset

Tel: 01202 723335

British Wars through the Centuries

Roman Invasion (43)

Manduessedum (61)

Battle of Mons Graupius (83)

Norman Conquest (1066)

The Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453)

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1485)

Battle of Bosworth Field - last British king to die in combat (1485)

Italian Wars (1494 ? 1559)

Eighty Years' War (1598 - 1648)

Spanish Armada (1588)

Bishops' Wars (1639 - 1640)

British Civil War (1642 - 1649)

First Anglo-Dutch War (1652 - 1654)

Anglo-Spanish War (1654 - 1660)

Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665 - 1667)

War of Devolution (1667 - 1668)

Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672 - 1674)

King Philip's War (1675 - 1676)

Monmouth Rebellion (1685)

Battle of Sedgemoor (1685) - last battle on English soil

War of the Grand Alliance (or King William's War) (1688 - 1697)

Jacobite Rebellions (1689 - 1746)

Battle of Culloden (1746) - last battle on the British mainland

War of the Spanish Succession (1702 - 1713)

Queen Anne's War (1702 - 1713)

War of Jenkin's Ear (1739 - 1742)

War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748)

Seven Years War (1756-1763)

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780-1784)

American War of Independence (1775 to 1783)

Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815)

Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

British-American War (1812)

First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 - 1842)

First Opium War (1839 - 1842)

Crimean War (1854 - 1856) Charge of the Light Brigade

Second Opium War (or The Arrow War) (1856 - 1860)

Anglo-Zulu War (1879)

Boer War (1880 - 1881 and 1899 - 1902)

Anglo-Irish War (1919 - 1921)

World War I (1914 - 1918)

World War II (1939 - 1945)

Cold War (1945 - 1991)

Malayan Emergency (1948 - 1960)

Korean War (1950 - 1953)

Mau Mau Uprising (1952 - 1960)

Cyprus Emergency (1955 - 1959)

Suez Crisis (1956)

Brunei Uprising (1962)

Konfrontasi (1962-1966)

Aden Emergency (1963 - 1967)

Icelandic Cod War (1975 - 1976)

Falklands War (1982)

Gulf War (1990 - 1991)

Kosovo War (1999)

Sierra Leone (2000)

2001 Afghanistan War (2001-2002)

2003 invasion of Iraq (2003)

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