The First World War online - Naval & Military Press

The Naval and Military Press has long blazed the trail for naval and military books and offers arguably the most comprehensive selection of military books anywhere. I've been a customer - and a fan - for many years and whilst I would always prefer to buy an original regimental history or an original half-forgotten military memoir, the fact of the matter is that these books have become increasingly scarce and hard to come by. They were scarce when I first started seriously buying military books in the early 1980s. Now, many are virtually impossible to find, even if you do have bottomless pockets.

In addition to their impressive book catalogue, the company has also just launched a new website - Naval & Military Archive - which offers two extremely useful collections.

The first is a searchable database of the medal rolls for the 1914 Star, 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Inter-Allied Victory Medal and Territorial Force Medal. The company has transcribed the information from the original medal rolls and the database - like N&MP's other databases such as Soldiers Died in The Great War - is effective and simple to use.  In many cases, the information you find on the rolls may be no more than you'd find on the medal index card - and in some cases in fact, less. On the other hand, some of the rolls state former service, giving battalion or unit details which may not have been included on the medal index card. In any event, no serious Great War researcher would NOT want to at least run a search on these medal rolls.

The other resource which is going to be a godsend for many, is the war diaries. As the website states,

"These War Diaries are the official accounts kept by most units of the British Army on active service during the Great War. Fully indexed, dates and locations of the unit are given along with intelligence reports, maps, precise plans for battles etc. These diaries are the most detailed, accurate and authentic accounts of what actually occurred on a daily basis during the war to the soldiers in the trenches."

So what could be better than to identify your ancestor's battalion from the medal rolls and then go straight to the war diaries to find out what he and his comrades were up to. And if your ancestor was an officer, you stand a greater chance of finding him mentioned by name, especially if he was a casualty.

I highly recommend this new resource which will become even better as more and more diaries are added. A site to bookmark.

FREE medal rolls online

There is a wealth of medal roll material available on line, much of it FREE.  Ancestry has an impressive collection of medal rolls between the years 1793 and 1949 BUT excluding medal rolls for the First World War and Second World War.  You can search the UK Military Campaign Medal and Award Rolls 1793-1949 but you'll need to pay for the privilege.  What you get in return is film of the rolls and transcriptions; still well worth the investment in my book.


Specialist auctioneer and valuer Dix Noonan Webb have four medal rolls on their site.  All are free to search, but it's imporatnt to note that this is a searchable facility and not a browsable one.  The medal rolls are:


Military General Service Medal Roll (1793-1814)
Naval General Service Medal Roll 1793-1840
Army of India Medal Roll 1799-1826
India Mutiny Medal Roll - British Forces - 1857-1859


The first three rolls on this list were compiled by Colin Message, the India Mutiny roll by Kevin Asplin.


Kevin has his own, extremely useful, Asplin Military History Resources website and within this you can access the following medal rolls:


Nominal Roll for the Indian Mutiny medal 1857-1859 - a browsable roll but without medal clasp details.

Medal Rolls for the British Army's campaign in Burma 1887-1889.

Indian General Service Medal 1895-1902 - medals (and clasps) for the Punjab Frontier Campaign of 1897-98 which were awarded to the 2nd Battalion Highland Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade.

Long Service & Good Conduct Medal awarded to members of the Royal Artillery between 1902 and 1912.


In addition there is a sample from the full QSA and KSA medal rolls to the Lancashire Fusiliers and details on how to order transcriptions of medal rolls for the China campaign of 1856-1860.

Updates - week ending 22nd August 2009

I was looking at the Dix Noonan website earlier in the week and noticed that the company offers a FREE facility to search various medal rolls.

The rolls on offer are:

Military General Service 1793-1814
Naval General Service 1793-1840
Army of India 1799-1826
Indian Mutiny 1857-1859

Click HERE to search the Dix Noonan medal rolls.

If the campaigns above do not cover your own ancestor's military service, don't despair. We have a number of Victorian medal rolls in our archive (including the Indian Mutiny roll above) and we can conduct searches of others held at the National Archives. Get in touch with your details.

More enquiries this week regarding First World War and Boer War veterans. There have also been enquiries regarding men who were serving after 1921. Whilst we can certainly assist with campaigns up to 1920, there is a limit to how much assistance we'll be able to provide after this date. Service records beyond this date are not currently in the public domain and your best bet - if you're a relative - will be to contact the Ministry of Defence. See our Post 1920 page for details.

We've added a British Military Bookshop link to this blog (see left) and will repeat this on the main Army Ancestry site. We also feature the Naval & Military Press which, in our opinion, offers the widest range of military history titles including many fabulous reference works which will be must-haves for serious enthusiasts and collectors alike. N&M Press is currently having a sale of stock which means that there is 20 per cent off ALL titles. Grab yourself a bargain!

Updates - week ending Saturday 15th August 2009

More enquiries this week from Ireland, Australia and of course, the UK; the majority of these concerning First World War soldiers.

It's a frustrating fact of WW1 research that service records for the majority of Great War Other Ranks were destroyed in a bombing raid by Hitler's Luftwaffe in 1940. Those that weren't destroyed by fire were often badly damaged by water from the firemen's hoses. These documents, collectively known as the Burnt Documents, are archived in the WO 363 series at The National Archives. A second series of (undamaged) pension records exists in WO 364 and there are also First World War records in various PIN series. PIN 26 is for men wounded and receiving a pension, PIN 71 is men invalided to pension and PIN 82 is the series for men who died as a result of war service and whose widows subsequently claimed a pension. If your WW1 ancestor was an officer, you stand a good chance of finding him in WO 374 and WO 339.

But if your ancestor's service record has been destroyed, DON'T DESPAIR! It's likely that we can still glean some information about when he joined up and possibly when he was discharged and where he would have served.

First World War medal index cards exist for men who were awarded medals or a silver war badge and we'll check any army service numbers against our extensive database of British Army numbers which extends from 1881 through to 1918. This, as far as we are aware, is a unique and invaluable reference resource which can provide vital clues about your ancestor's service.

Medal index cards refer to the actual medal rolls and if you don't know the battalion in which your ancestor served, these are certainly worth checking. Similarly, the Silver War Badge medal rolls will often give the date and place of birth of the recipient.

Armed with information from the medal index card, the medal rolls and our army service numbers database, we can then think about checking the war diaries. It's unlikely that your relative will be mentioned by name (unless he's an officer or - as an outside chance - a senior NCO) but the diaries are still worth checking. Some battalions buck the trend and mention Other Ranks by name, and in our experience you're more likely to find the name of your ancestor in the early pages of a war diary than for those written later in the war.

So, DON'T GIVE UP! We'll always advise you on our recommended approach and we'll access the relevant files for you. Drop us a line via our GET IN TOUCH page or leave a comment on any of these update posts.


The soldier pictured at the top of this post is Charles Sabourin of the East Surrey Regiment. Charles is a good example of a man with a badly damaged service record in WO 363 (see above) and also an Other Rank who is mentioned by name in the 1st East Surrey war diary. Charles, wounded on 23rd August 1914, is one of several men noted in the war diary as being missing in action. In fact he had been captured by the Germans and, minus his right leg, would be repatriated to England in February 1915. You can read more about Charles Sabourin on the Chailey 1914-1918 website.