Researching Your Military Ancestors
A number of posters on the ARRSE main site ask how to find more information on their military ancestors in the British Army, Navy and Air Force. This page is a home for some of the FAQs and stuff.
If you are looking for info about an ancestor in a Commonwealth unit, there is a section at the foot of this page to get you started.
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The National Archives
The National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) at Kew is a good place to start. Visit their website for information.
The NA have some useful online guides to researching your ancestors and this link takes you to the military section of their bookshop. There are good titles on tracing your ancestors through military records.
That link also has some other publications you might enjoy. The Battlefront series, containing a guide and facsimile historical documents are particularly good.
See also The National Archives of Scotland [1]
Sources of Information By Historical Period
Pre WW1
The National Archives have masses of material, some of which is searchable online through the Access To Archives search site.
See also Ancestors in the Royal Navy for info about RN Certificates Of Service.
WW1
The Army campaign medal rolls for WW1 are now online (less some info lost in WW2) so if you happen to know your ancestor's name and regimental number or unit, or he/she had an unusual name, you may be able to track them down. This link takes you to the search page
search the campaign medal rolls
If you get a result, you'll find information about which unit(s) your ancestor served with.
You can buy a copy of the medal card online, but the info given is pretty sparse ......
image copyright the National Archives
Once you have that info (free to personal visitors to the NA at Kew), you can then get the relevant medal books. You'll need a reader's ID card, so take some ID when you go. There are links telling you how to do it, and what you'll need on the National Archives wiki page.
However, if your ancestor wasn't awarded a campaign medal, they won't be in there.
You can also get access to higher level documents such as Unit War Diaries, strategy and plans etc. through the NA.
Post 1920
The records of anyone who served after 1920 are retained by the relevant Force. I've never tried getting stuff out of the Army, Royal Navy or RAF, but the NA have a series of pages and links to point you in the right direction.
If your ancestor was a (British or Commonwealth) casualty in any of the Armed Forces or the Merchant Navy, you can visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and search. See also the CWGC page
Ancestors in Commonwealth Units
If your relative was in the Indian Army, try the British Library although you'll probably need to pay a personal visit to inspect the archives. Make an appointment first ...
Most other nationalities maintain their own archives. There are links from the National Archives website.
