For Service up to the end of World War 1

The surviving records up to discharge in 1918 are now available to the public and can be seen at the National Archives, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey. Please note that the NA will not do research for you and you must either visit or engage a professional researcher. The NA can provide you with a list.

Medal rolls, up to and including the First World War, can be seen at the NA at Kew. Occasionally they show additional information that can provide further clues to service. They can also now be purchased online via http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Other useful sources are the ‘Muster Rolls and Pay Lists’ of the Royal Artillery (WO10 series). These are the nominal rolls for the companies and batteries of the Royal Artillery. Two useful guides to these records are Laws, Lt.-Col. M. E. S., Battery Records of the Royal Artillery 1716-1859 (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institute, 1952); and Laws, Lt.-Col. M. E. S., Battery Records of the Royal Artillery 1859-1877 (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1970). These guides also provide tables of battery locations during these years. For Royal Horse Artillery locations, the best source remains Michell, Lt. Col. J. E., Records of the Royal Horse Artillery from its Formation to the Present Day (Revised edition of The records of the Horse Brigade) [London: W. Mitchell & Co., 1888]. For battery locations between 1877 and 1914, the best source is the Distribution Lists of the Royal Artillery, published on a quarterly basis. Copies are available here in the James Clavell Library of Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum, in Woolwich.

WO69 provides artillery records of service for the periods 1791-1855 for the Royal Artillery and 1803-63 for the Royal Horse Artillery. For Royal Artillerymen discharged between 1856 and 1913, the most important source of service information is usually WO 97: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers’ Documents. If the soldier claimed a war disability pension, it is likely that the papers have been removed and filed either with the PIN71 series of records in the NA or held at:

The Veterans Agency,
Tomlinson House,
Norcross,
Blackpool FY5 3WP

For general World War One interest you may like to visit the Western Front Association website.