Embarkation Table, 1914

I was looking through the war diary for the 1st Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders earlier today, and came across some fascinating detail concerning the battalion's embarkation from Southampton in December 1914.

The 1st Battalion had been stationed in Dinapore, India in August 1914 and didn't arrive back in the UK until the 17th November 1914. It was one of the units recalled from the British Empire's far-flung outposts and was assigned to the 81st Brigade in the newly-formed 27th Division. The embarkation notes and table in the battalion war diary give a fascinating insight into the way in which troops were organised.

I suppose I'd never thought about how the actual embarkation would have been organised, but of course it makes perfect sense to have allocated serial numbers to units and to mark up everything with those numbers. The four infantry battalions in the 81st Brigade were the 1st A&S Highlanders, the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment, the 2nd Cameron Highlanders, and the 1st Royal Scots, and again it is interesting to note that they each sailed on different ships, presumably a cautionary measure to guard against an entire brigade being sent to the bottom of the English Channel by a German U-Boat.

The extract above, whilst included in the War Diary for the 1st A&S Highlanders, also includes similar levels of detail for other brigades; as I say, completely fascinating.

I was checking the war diaries on the Naval & Military Archive which offers access to millions of records and over 4.500 individual war diaries for as little as £10. Photo above, showing British troops embarking at Southampton in 1915, is from the Alamy website.

Western Front War Diaries - save £90 - BE QUICK!

War Diaries of the Western Front - British Infantry Battalions

Not for the first time, I have breathed a sigh of relief that I have the Naval & Military Press DVD-ROM version of the war diaries of battalions which served on the Western Front.

4,500 separate diaries, 1.52 million pages, and most pages indexed. Ancestry also publishes war diaries but finding them is quite another matter.

The N&MP DVD-ROM costs £450 but if you’re quick and buy it before the end of the month you’ll save £90. BUY IT NOW in the Winter Sale for £360. Furthermore, Naval & Military Press offers an easy payment plan so you can pay for this in instalments. Well and truly worth it.

Royal Sussex Regiment resources online

Here's a very useful resource for anybody (like me) with an interest in the Royal Sussex Regiment.

West Sussex Council has put together a very helpful Great War West Sussex site which provides access to Royal Sussex Regiment war diaries, indexes to Royal Sussex Regiment men (which includes nominal rolls for some battalions), selected newspaper articles and documents and, at the time of writing, 73 case studies of men and women who served.

The jewel in the crown is undoubtedly the war diaries, typed copies of the originals which are available to download free of charge as PDFs. I've grabbed them all.

I offer a fast, efficient and cost-effective military research service. Have a look at my military research page and drop me a line if you think I might be able to help.

Ancestry publish WW1 diaries

Just in time for the Gallipoli anniversary, Ancestry has published a raft of war diaries from the First World War. These include diaries that could previously be accessed from The Naval & Military Archive or from The National Archives and also, for the first time, newly digitised pages from units that served at Gallipoli.

This is going to be a tremendous asset and one I shall be referring to a lot. The extract above, the first entry in the war diary for the 4th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment, describes its landing on West Beach on 25th April 1915.

War Diaries - Early bird offer closes soon!

I've just been sent a reminder by Naval & Military Press that the early bird offer on their War Diaries CD ROM ends on the 22nd December.

Have you been good this year? Well if you have, treat yourself to this CD ROM and save yourself a hundred quid. Better still, get the missus or fella to stump up instead. After 22nd December this essential resource is going to cost £450. Buy it now for £350.

Remember too that Naval & Military Press offers EASY PAYMENT options. Spread the cost of this over four or twelve months and pay NO INTEREST.

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.

Digitisation of WW1 War Diaries

An email yesterday from the Federation of Family History Societies begins:

"The National Archives is looking for volunteers to help ensure that the pages within a popular record series (unit war diaries from the First World War, catalogue reference WO 95) are in the correct order before a conservation and digitisation project begins."

This is great news. When I was at TNA a decade ago, some of the war diaries were in a shocking state and in need of conservation even then. Not only were they being pored over by thousands of researchers, but the photocopying assistants employed by TNA were also extremely heavy-handed at times. In fact I often used to think that the silent stewards who pad through the reading rooms at TNA reminding you not to breathe too heavily on the archive, would have been better employed reprimanding their colleagues in the photocopying room.

I can't imagine that the digitisation project is one which Ancestry would be interested in, so assume that this is an in-house project for TNA and will augment the war diaries that they already have online.

Image courtesy of TNA and Jeremy Banning.

Unit war diaries of the First World War

Ninety four years ago today, allied forces attacked the German lines at Loos and in diversionary attacks further north. By the end of the day, nearly ten thousand British troops lay dead.

There's an increasing appetite for all things WW1; an appetite that will surely continue to increase as we approach the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of war, the 100th anniversary of Mons, of Festubert, Neuve Chapelle etc.

The majority of our work is concerned with First World War soldiers and even though, thanks to a 1940 bombing raid on London's docklands, the majority of service records for Other Ranks no longer survive, it's still possible in many cases to make assumptions about a soldier's service based on his medal index card (if he has one) and the war diary of the unit to which he belonged.

War diaries often provide a treasure trove of information and are really the primary sources of information (along with Brigade and Divisional diaries) when it comes to the day to day routines of a particular battalion or battery or other army unit.

So if your ancestor's service records went up in flames in 1940, don't despair. Get in touch with us and who knows, you may find him mentioned in a war diary.