Tracing Your Great War Ancestors Page 5

  Service and regimental museums do not have any service records: these are either at TNA or, for men who left after the end of 1920, with the Ministry of Defence.

  County archives (or record offices) are also likely to have some material, particularly relating to the impact of the war on local communities. A few have the regimental archives deposited by the local regiment. There may also be records of local territorial regiments, which provided many of the troops who fought at Gallipoli.

  There are also many more specialist repositories ranging from the British Library, which is comparable to The National Archives in size and importance, to company and hospital archives. With the exception of the British Library, which has records of the Indian Army, they are not likely to hold much direct information about the campaign in Gallipoli.

  To find the addresses, websites and other contact details of all British (and some overseas) archives visit ARCHON – www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon – where there are links to individual archives websites. For regimental museums, however, it may be easier to go via www.armymuseums.org.uk.

  There are two national databases showing which records are held where. The National Register of Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra) offers broad descriptions of particular collections of records held at archives across the United Kingdom – this is particularly useful if you are looking to see whether there are papers for an individual or company. In addition, Access to Archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a) offers more detailed descriptions of the holdings of many archives in England. This might be more useful in searching for generic references to Gallipoli or the Dardanelles, rather than for the records of an individual. There is also an equivalent for Wales (www.archivesnetworkwales.info), while in Scotland the Scottish Archive Network provides something similar at www.scan.org.uk.

  Using online catalogues can be tricky, particularly those provided by local record offices, so if there are any instructions it is a good idea to read them before you start. In general, the more information you type in, the more it will confuse the search engine, so try to keep it simple.

  DEATH AND THE FLIES

  In this extract from The Secret Battle (1919), Sir Alan Herbert describes life in a trench:

  There was a great muddle in front. Troops of two different brigades were hopelessly entangled in the shallow trenches they had taken from the Turks. They had few officers left, and their staffs had the most imperfect impressions of the whereabouts of their mangled commands. So the sun was well up when we finally took over the line; this was in defiance of all tradition, but the Turk was shaken and did not molest us. The men who passed us on their way down grimly wished us joy of what they had left; their faces were pale and drawn, full of loathing and weariness, but they said little; and the impression grew that there was something up there which they could not even begin to describe. It was a still, scorching morning, and as we moved on the air became heavy with a sickening stench, the most awful of all smells that man can be called to endure, because it preyed on the imagination as well as the senses. For we knew now what it was.

  We came into a Turkish trench, broad and shallow. In the first bay lay two bodies – a Lowlander and a Turk. They lay where they had killed each other, and they were very foul and loathsome in the sun. A man looked up at them and passed on, thinking, ‘Glad I haven’t got to stay here.’ In the next bay there were three dead, all Englishmen; and in the next there were more and he thought, ‘It was a hot fight just here.’ But as he moved on, and in each succeeding bay beheld the same corrupt aftermath of yesterday’s battle, the suspicion came to him that this was no local horror. Over the whole front of the attack, along two lines of trenches, these regiments of dead were everywhere found, strung in unnatural heaps along the parapets, or sprawling horribly half into the trench so that he touched them as he passed. Yet still he could not believe, and at each corner thought, ‘Surely there will be none in this bay.’

  But always there were more; until, if he were not careful or very callous, it began to get on his nerves, so that at the traverses he almost prayed that there might be no more beyond. Yet many did not realize what was before them till they were finally posted in the bays they were to garrison – three or four in a bay. Then they looked up at the sprawling horrors on the parapet and behind them — just above their heads, and knew that these were to be their close companions all that sweltering day, and perhaps beyond.

  The regiment we had relieved had been too exhausted by the attack, or too short-handed, to bury more than a few, and the Turkish snipers made it impossible to do anything during the day. And so we sat all the scorching hours of the sun, or moved listlessly up and down, trying not to look upwards.

  But there was a hideous fascination about the things, so that after a few hours a man came to know the bodies in his bay with a sickening intimacy, and could have told you many details about each of them – their regiment, and how they lay, and how they had died, and little things about their uniforms, a missing button, or some papers, or an old photograph sticking out of a pocket.

  All of them were alive with flies, and at noon when we took out our bread and began to eat, the flies rose in a great black swarm and fell upon the food in our hands. After that no one could eat. All day men were being sent away by the doctor, stricken with sheer nausea by the flies and the stench and the things they saw, and went retching down the trench. To keep away the awful reek we went about for a little in the old gas-helmets, but the heat and burden of them in the hot, airless trench was intolerable.

  The officers had no dug-outs, but sat under the parapets, like the men. No officer went sick; no officer could be spared; and indeed we seemed to have a greater power of resistance to this ordeal of disgust than the men … all night we laboured at the burying of the bodies. It was bad work, every man who could be spared took his part, careless of sleep or rest, so long as he should but so strong was the horror upon us that we could not sit for another day with those things. But we could only bury half of them that night, and all the next day we went again through that lingering torment. And in the afternoon when we had orders to go up to the front line after dusk for an attack, we were glad. It was one of the very few moments in my experience when the war correspondent’s legend of a regiment’s pleasure at the prospect of battle came true. For anything was welcome if only we could get out of that trench, away from the smell and the flies, away from those bodies.

  Chapter 4

  RESEARCHING BRITISH SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

  In this section we look at the basic records you can use to obtain a general picture of your ancestors’ service.

  Around half a million men served at some stage at Gallipoli or in the neighbouring waters, and although some records are missing you should be able to find something about each of them. However, exactly what is available cannot be predicted with any certainty, although there is more about the infantry and those who were killed or died of wounds than about men who served in supporting occupations.

  All the men were volunteers. Some had been soldiers in the pre-war army, such as the men of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, who led the landing on V Beach on 25 April and suffered terrible casualties in doing so. Others were members of the prewar Territorial Force, or reservists who had been recalled to the colours on the outbreak of war. Many, however, had volunteered in the early weeks of the war and joined one of the new battalions that were urgently formed to cope with the flood of young men desirous of fighting the Kaiser.

  Few of the Anzacs, for example, had any previous military experience, which makes their achievements all the more remarkable. Take the stretcher-bearer John Simpson, who achieved renown through carrying wounded Anzacs on a donkey in the early days of the landing; he had deserted from a British merchant navy ship and tramped around Australia looking for work before enlisting on 23 August 1914 in Perth. Like many British-born volunteers he had joined up so that he could get free passage to Britain in order to see his family.

  GET
TING STARTED

  Before you start your research you need to be reasonably confident of the soldier’s full name, the regiment or arm he served with, and his service number (if he was an ordinary soldier or non-commissioned officer). Otherwise it is very easy to start researching the wrong person.

  If you have his medals, the information should be stamped on the rim or reverse. It may appear on any family papers, such as letters and diaries, or may even be written on the backs of photographs. Family stories can also help, although general statements such as ‘he was at Gallipoli’ or ‘he was in the trenches when he was buried by an explosion’ are obviously not very useful. Even so they may offer a clue.

  MEDAL INDEX CARDS

  Every serviceman and woman (as well as a few civilians) who saw service overseas was entitled to two campaign medals: the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In addition, men who served overseas, including of course at Gallipoli, before 31 December 1915 were entitled to the 1914/15 Star. Each medal was embossed with the man’s name and rank and number current at the time of his discharge.

  There are several designs of Medal Index Card, but they should all tell you: the rank the man held at the end of his service, regimental numbers (other ranks only) and the units he served in, and the medals to which he was entitled, together with the place on the medal roll where details are to be found. In addition, the card should give the theatre of operations in which he first saw service. In most cases the card will be marked Gallipoli (or Balkans), or possibly the code 2B. The date given should be the day that he landed on Gallipoli (that is, between 25 April 1915 and 8 January 1916), but if an earlier date is given then it may be when the man arrived in Egypt or came via the Western Front.

  There may be additional information such as his date of discharge (or the date of his death in action), any gallantry medals he was awarded, perhaps a note that he was entitled to wear the oak leaf emblem on the Victory Medal for being Mentioned in Despatches, usually abbreviated to EMB (for emblem), and whether he was discharged to the Z Reserve in 1919 – that is, he could be recalled in the event of the resumption of hostilities.

  The Cards are available online at both Ancestry (‘British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards’) and via The National Archives website. Of the two, Ancestry offers by far the better reproduction in colour and provides both sides of each card, which occasionally includes the address to which the medals were sent. In addition, summaries providing details of the units with which a man served and his regimental numbers are available through Findmypast and the Lives of the First World War project free of charge, although they aren’t all that easy to find. Details are available at: www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org.

  The medal rolls themselves are at The National Archives in series WO 329 and online at www.NMarchives.com. They are probably not worth consulting as the only additional information you are likely to find is the infantry battalion in which he was serving at the time of his death or discharge. However, this may help you find the appropriate battalion war diary.

  SILVER WAR BADGE

  You may also come across a card for the Silver War Badge. A small, circular lapel badge made of sterling silver, it bore the king’s initials, a crown, and the inscriptions ‘For King and Empire’ and ‘Services Rendered’. The Silver War Badge provided former soldiers with some form of identification to show that they had faithfully served King and Country before their honorable discharge. Medal rolls are also available on Ancestry, but they are not very informative.

  SERVICE RECORDS: OTHER RANKS AND NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

  Service records can be a key resource in tracing an individual serviceman, supplying details of postings, wounds and sickness, and perhaps some family details. Unfortunately, however, less than a third of service records survive. The remainder were destroyed during the Blitz.

  Individual files contain a wide variety of documents, which can be informative if at times a little bewildering; with a little practice and patience you should be able to decipher the forms and build up an intimate portrait of the individual. They certainly repay close study.

  No two files are the same. Some are very detailed, with a variety of forms, letters and other paperwork, but in other cases you may find only a man’s attestation form or perhaps a medical record. Of particular importance is the attestation form that was completed by the individual on enlistment. This indicates when and where a man enlisted and was discharged, and gives other personal details such as civilian occupation, home address and date of birth. It usually appears at the beginning of a service record. Files for pre-war regular soldiers, part-time members of the Territorial Army, or reservists recalled to the colours include their pre-war attestation forms and details of their pre-war service, which might occasionally go back to the Boer War or earlier.

  The other document to look out for is Form B103/1 ‘Casualty Form – Active Service’. Despite the name, it includes far more than information on wounds and hospital stays. It could also tell you about promotions through the ranks (and demotions if appropriate), and list the units he served in; it may indicate when he went overseas and when he returned to Britain to be discharged; it may provide details of any medical treatments received and perhaps notes of any disciplinary offences (generally for drunkenness, petty theft or ignoring an officer’s order). You may also find the date and reason for death.

  If a man died during his army service, there may well be correspondence and forms about his will and personal effects, as well as perhaps letters from his next of kin seeking more information about the circumstances of his loss.

  What these records do not do is to tell you very much about any fighting he was engaged in or any gallantry medals he may have received, nor can they offer any real idea about his life in the army. However, you can use the war diaries to obtain this information.

  These service records are online at both Ancestry and Findmypast. The service records of men who continued to serve in the army after the end of 1920 are still with the Ministry of Defence. Full details are available at www.veterans-uk.info.

  OFFICERS’ SERVICE RECORDS

  Surviving service records are at The National Archives in series WO 339 and WO 374. About 85 per cent have survived. In practice, there seems to be little difference between the two series. There is just one file for each officer, and they are not online.

  At some stage the records were weeded and much material was destroyed. Records for men who survived are generally less full than those for men who died in action. Even so, there may be correspondence concerning money, length of service and pensions, rather than directly about an individual’s war service. If an officer came through the ranks, then there should be his original enlistment document and recommendations from his commanding officer. If a man died during his service there are likely to be papers relating to the administration of his will and dispersal of his effects, as well as correspondence with the next of kin, who were often desperate to discover the circumstances of their son, brother or husband’s death. The files of both Captain Clem Attlee and Lieutenant John Still contain medical board reports as both men had been injured during the course of their service.

  Officers are listed in the Army Lists. These provide an easy way to confirm whether an ancestor was an officer or not, because the Lists include everyone who was commissioned, giving details about which regiment or unit he was with, his rank and when he was promoted to it. They are available online at the Internet Archive at www.archive.org, although they are not particularly easy to use. The commercial genealogical data providers may offer the occasional copy. In addition, complete sets can be found in the Open Reading Room at The National Archives and at the IWM, the British Library and the National Army Museum.

  The London Gazette is the government’s official newspaper. It includes announcements of the appointment of officers and any subsequent promotions, together with when and how they were discharged. The surnames and initials of individual officers are given, together with their regim
ent and the date of the promotion (even temporary ones). Inevitably, publication may have taken place months after the event, but the date the promotion was granted is always given. A brief reason for a resignation is often given. The London Gazette has been digitised and is online at www.thegazette.co.uk. The indexing, however, is rather erratic.

  Identifying Military Uniforms

  You may have photographs showing the soldier/s you are researching in uniform. As well as providing a direct link to the past, such photographs can tell you something about his service through the insignia and badges shown.

  Officers and other ranks wore differently designed uniforms, and it is always clear which was which. Officers’ uniforms were better tailored, and officers were rarely seen without a tie. Ordinary soldiers wore coarser tunics and trousers (kilts, of course, in the Highland regiments). Noncommissioned officers wore downward pointing chevrons (one for a lance corporal, two for a corporal and three for a sergeant) on each arm above the elbow. (They should not be confused with long-service stripes, which are found below the elbow.)

  Each regiment and corps had its own badge worn on the cap or as buttons on the jacket and tunic. A few are very distinctive, such as the mounted gun for the Royal Artillery or the flaming grenade of the Grenadier Guards, but most at first glance look very similar.

  There are various guides to help you decipher your photographs. The best books are Neil Storey, Military Photographs and How to Date Them (Countryside Books, 2010) and Robert Pols, Identifying Old Army Photographs (Family History Partnership, 2011). For regimental badges, see Ian Swinnerton’s Identifying Your World War I Soldier from Badges and Photographs (Family History Partnership, 2004) and Peter Doyle and Chris Foster’s British Army Cap Badges of the First World War (Shire, 2010). Probably the best general introduction to interpreting uniforms is provided by Chris McDonald at www.4thgordons.com/I-Spybook%20of%20Uniforms1.2.pdf. There are several rather unsatisfactory websites that may help you to identify regimental badges; the best is probably the British Armed Services and National Service site at www.britisharmedforces.org/index.php