Search results for Research.
The Western Front Association preserves a major Great War archive of 6.5 million records
Introduction The Western Front Association (WFA) is delighted to announce that it has secured the safe storage and preservation of a major archive of over six million Great War soldiers' pension record cards. Some two years ago, the WFA learned that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was no longer able to retain and manage its archive of Great War sol…
Official correspondence following a death in the Great War – Private Cornelius Hayes, Cheshire Regiment
The improved availability of online records has made tracing of the life and service of a Great War soldier relatively easy compared to the situation only a few years ago. The records available from free and commercial websites include
Medal Roll Index Cards, for every soldier who served overseas.
The Campaign Medal and Silver War Badge Rolls …
Free access to the ‘Australian Anzacs in the Great War 1914-1918’ and ‘New Zealand Anzacs in the Great War 1914-1918’ databases
The ‘Australian Anzacs in the Great War 1914-1918’ and ‘New Zealand Anzacs in the Great War 1914-1918’ databases are research and public interest initiatives centred in the School of Humanities & Social Science at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. Both draw on a wide range of published sources, supplemented by research in cemeter…
Leonard Maidment: missing, found, now remembered
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As Serjeant Leonard Maidment nervously waited in the pre-dawn gloom of the morning of 20 July 1918 preparing for his first combat on the Western Front, his thoughts would have turned to his family, safe at home in Andover. His father, Edward and mother, Bessie would be oblivious to the fact that Leonard’s battalion, the 2/4th Hampshire Regiment, wa…
A draft of 100, all boys from the Kings Liverpool Regt
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Most people seeking to trace the steps of a soldier who served in WW1 will run into the same dead end that I did when I was trying to follow my father's journey through that war. His service record, the document that would have provided the necessary details, no longer exists because most of them were destroyed in the London blitz of 1940 - and tha…
The Wood Brothers of Stacksteads, Lancashire
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Back in 2014, I was helping to plan my brother's stag party. We planned to go to Ypres to visit many of the First World War sites and particularly the Menin Gate. It dawned on me that once there, as a group, we would wonder how many of our fellow Townspeople of Clitheroe were commemorated on Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Memorials. I did some research an…
Ep. 13 – The Great War tea stall at Peterborough East Station
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Beverly Jones, from Peterborough Archives Service, talks about the research into two visitors’ books from a tea stall run by the Women’s United Total Abstinence Council on Peterborough East Railway Station during 1916 and 1917.
Ep. 65 – Major Discoveries on the Western Front – David Tattersfield
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Western Front Association trustee David Tattersfield talks about his detective work in France to determine the identities of two majors buried in graves marked unknown, who were both killed in the German Spring offensive on the River Aisne in May 1918.
How to research Canadian Soldiers from the First World War
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We are sometimes asked about how to undertake research for servicemen who were killed in the Great War. Whilst there are lots of resources available (and these of course include the Pension Records saved by The Western Front Association) there are many ‘nooks and crannies’ that may be overlooked or unknown. In this brief article we aim to direct …
Just because it’s official doesn’t mean it’s right
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'It’s an ill wind … ' The pandemic has certainly limited options, but at the same time it has focused minds. In my case and that of my collaborator Mick Rowson it concentrated our minds on some of the ‘problem cases’ we had failed to resolve on our roll of honour of Burslem men who were killed in the Great War. Burslem, the Mother Town of the Sta…
How to research Australian and New Zealand Soldiers from the First World War
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An earlier article has covered the potential sources available to those who are researching Canadian soldiers who served in the Great War. This brief article covers the sources available to research soldiers from Australia and New Zealand. Australian Service records Comprehensive service records for Australian soldiers can be found in the Nationa…
The Search for Daniel Lightfoot
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The search began with the war memorial on the wall of a former pub, the Dog & Partridge, 5 Hot Lane, Burslem, which was opposite my primary school and at the back of the brickworks where my father worked. I have known it virtually all my life. Only when my friend Mick Rowson and I decided to compile a Great War Roll of Honour for Burslem did I…
ONLINE: 'Research and Records Using CWGC Archive - Collection Gems' with Mark Jones
This talk will aim to offer attendees an insight into the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and its archives. The CWGC’s Archive is a collection of over 10,000 items relating to the CWGC’s history from its founding up until the present day. The archive is an important source of information regarding the CWGC’s work and includes a range…
Boy Soldiers of the Great War Revisited by Richard van Emden
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[This wonderful article first appeared in the April 2022 edition of Stand To! It is shared here by way of example of the quality of articles members enjoy in every edition of our journal]. Shortly before my father died in 2002, he had a book published that he had been working on since the late 1970s (it was on the Old French epic The Song of Rol…
First World War Materials for University Students
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Autumn brings the start of the academic term. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will be starting or recommencing. There are a number of degrees which focus solely on the First World War whilst there are also a number which include the conflict as part of a broader degree programme (three such postgraduate degree programmes can be found in this…
Finding Captain Brooke: The oldest Regimental Medical Officer to be killed in the war
On 27 May 1918 the Headquarters of the 1st Battalion Wiltshire Regiment was surrounded during a desperate rearguard action at the village of Bouffignereux on the Aisne. Numerous officers and men were killed, with others being wounded and taken prisoner, including the battalion's commanding officer. The unit’s war diary – perhaps inevitably – does n…