England Military Records for Family History (National Institute)

Records of Royal Artillery WO 69
The records of the R.A. (including the Royal Horse Artillery) are kept separately from the rest of the army as they came under the Ordnance Office. Officers will be in the Army Lists and Kane has published a book on officers of the Royal Artillery Regiment from 1763 to 1914 and this supplies the date on which each officer started as a gentleman cadet, and his age at that time, together with dates of promotion and remarks about medals, decorations and overseas postings. Medical officers were listed separately.

Laws’ Battery Records of the Royal Artillery from 1716 can be consulted to ascertain where each company of each battalion was stationed, and which WO 10 numbers contain their monthly Muster Rolls and Pay Lists, see chart 23.Soldiers’ Records for the 13 Battalions and the Invalids of the Artillery are in WO 97 starting at. The Description Books for other ranks 1765-1906 in WO 69 are on 107 films starting with, and Records of Services start at. A case study of a R.A. Riding Master has been published by Griffiths called Horse and Foot in Family Tree Magazine Vol 16 #9, page 65-66.

Records of Royal Engineers
Likewise, the records of the R.E. are kept separately as they also came under the Ordnance Office. There is a Roll of Officers of the Corps of the Royal Engineers from 1660-1898. Similar types of records exist as for the infantry and cavalry and details can be found in Fowler and Spencer. The Regimental Registers in WO 120 covering 1814-1867 are on. There is a Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent.

Records of Ancillary Services
The fighting men of the army were supported by a wide range of ancillary services that provided:


 * Administrative services.
 * Construction and maintenance.
 * Equipment supply.
 * Food.
 * Medical services.
 * Military intelligence.
 * Training.
 * Welfare for soldiers and their families.

There are records from 1873 and some earlier for:

Details should be sought in Fowler and Spencer and TNA leaflets D48, M55, M66, and M74. An historical society exists for the [http://www.royalarsenalwoolwich.org.uk/html/historical_society.html. Royal Arsenal at Woolwich], which supplied munitions for the forces and there is a website. For other munitions workers see Keegan.

Hospitals
There are several military hospitals that directly affected the rank-and-file soldier, especially regarding pension administration. Most important are:

Institutes or Academies
Artillery and Engineer officers were trained at the Royal Military Academy, (known as The Shop), at Woolwich, Kent from 1741. In 1799 the Royal Military College (RMC) was established at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire to train officers for the infantry and cavalry. It moved to Sandhurst, Berkshire in 1812 and merged there in 1947 with the Royal Military Academy. There were also training schools at High Wycombe Academy, Buckinghamshire from 1802, the Royal Gunnery School in Shoeburyness, Essex from 1859, and the Army Medical School at Chatham, Kent 1850, which moved to Netley, Hampshire in 1860. Student records include the father’s name and are kept by the Librarian at Sandhurst. There is a list of the Royal Military College of Sandhurst staff and students on  and further information is given by Titford in his article Have You Tried...? University Registers: Ireland; Vocational Education; Denominational Education (Anglican and Roman Catholic). Family Tree Magazine. Vol 15 #2., page 20-22. (1998).

Military Schools for the education of soldiers’ children included the Royal Military Asylum (now School) in Dover, Kent founded 1802 and the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin, Ireland founded 1815 but closed 1922. Records are available and a new history of the Royal Hibernian Military School by O’Reilly.

Further Sources
The Family History Library Research Outlines for England and for Wales have an excellent summary of their extensive resources; the Ireland and Scotland Outlines contain abbreviated versions. There are a large number of private specialized indexes for the military and many are listed in Gibson and Hampson’sSpecialist Indexes for Family Historians (2000).

Illustrating Your Army Ancestry
A wide variety of pictures are available from family sources, books, magazines, archives, military museums and the Internet. The Imperial War Museum Photographic Archive has over 5 million such illustrations, whilst the Jervis WWI Photographic Index collects discarded personnel photographs, researches them and makes them available (Swinnerton 1998-2, 2002-1).The Shire books are always good and there are military ones, including the Victorian Soldier by Nalson.The National Monuments Record houses 100,000 images of people and places of Greater London (Woodward).One group of wonderful illustrations often overlooked is the vast quantity of postcards produced during WWI using both photographs and paintings of such items as places, transport and hospital ships, badges, typical war situations, and groups of convalescent soldiers (Allen, Philip Chapman).

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