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Military records

ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

Hastings1066

Hastings1066 Report 3 May 2015 05:26

For some reason I have been unable to locate the military records of my family. Please could you tell me how to access them. :-)

GlitterBaby

GlitterBaby Report 3 May 2015 07:18

On which site ?

WW1 or WW2 ?

+++DetEcTive+++

+++DetEcTive+++ Report 3 May 2015 10:10

Welcome to the boards Michelle.

Glitterbaby asked which war for a reason. British WW2 records are still with the MOD and have to be purchased at a cost of £30 unless the serviceman or his widow can sign the form.
https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records

Less than 30% of full WW1 records survive as they were destroyed during WW2 bombing.
Records can be found on GR under the search Armed Forces & Conflict tab. Sometimes all you may find are medal cards which may only be indexed by initial and Surname.

Try searching on the National Archives site then rather than pay for access, copy and paste possibly relevant records here. If the NA site links to Ancestry or Findmypast, some one with the appropriate sub can check them out for you.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person%5Cdefault.htm

Its always worth checking for deaths in service. Quite often the entry gives the names of relatives. http://www.cwgc.org/

WW1 soldiers Wills can be searched for and purchased from
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#soldiers
http://www.cwgc.org/

Hastings1066

Hastings1066 Report 11 May 2015 04:34

Thank you for the advice. I will follow up. I was looking for both WW1 & WW2 as well as later service records from the 1950's.

Hastings1066

Hastings1066 Report 11 May 2015 04:36

Sorry. Just to clarify that unfortunately all relevant relations have passed on so suggestion 1 unfortunately is not an option. thank you for the support.

+++DetEcTive+++

+++DetEcTive+++ Report 11 May 2015 11:12

You can still purchase copies of the records held by the MOD - but you'd have to pay for them. :-0