Pension Records | The Western Front Association

As members of The Western Front Association will know, in 2012 the WFA stepped in to save from destruction over six million pension records of men who served in the Great War. Below are various articles explaining the background to these records.

In order to access the Pension Records, WFA members can click on the icon below which shows the 'Fold 3' logo. This will take you to a 'members log-in' page.

Alternatively click on 'Member Login' at the top of this page.

WFA members should enter their user name and password to access these records. If you do not know your username or password, click on the 'forgotten password' link and enter the email address held by the WFA. This will generate a new password for you. A video guide showing the process can be seen via the first of three videos which are available by clicking the 'Video Tutorial' icon below.

If you wish to view these records, but are not yet a member of the WFA please do join us via this link.

A Brief Guide showing how to use The WFA's Library Edition of Fold 3

Below are three videos created to help Western Front Association members log into the Pension Records via The Western Fr…

Fold3 Pension Records

As members of The Western Front Association will know, in 2012 the WFA stepped in to save from destruction over six mill…

Other Ranks Survived: The Final Release of Pension Records

The final set of Pension Record Cards has just been published by our partners 'Ancestry.co.uk' on their Fold3 platform. …

Pension Cards made available for 'Widows and Dependents of Other Ranks Died…

Members of The Western Front Association will be delighted to learn that another massive release of Pension Record Cards…

How the Pension Cards and Ledgers interconnect

The recent publication of well over a million extra Pension Card from the 'Widows and Dependents' series has been detail…

Using the RFC to unlock the workings of widow’s pensions

It was only in early 1915, 6 months in to the war, that the War Office began paying pensions to the widows of those sold…

Chelsea and the disabled soldier

At the outbreak of war in 1914 each of the two great military departments, the War Office and the Admiralty, dealt with …

Officers Pension Record Cards

Two more sets of Pension Record Cards ('PRCs') have been digitised and made available by the WFA's partner Ancestry. The…

Interesting examples of Officers Pension Record Cards

Below are a few examples of officers cards and officers widows cards located in the WFA's Pension Record Cards archive. …

Further Hints and Tips to assist with finding Pension Records

The following may assist WFA members in the search for pension records 1) If using a regimental number as one of the se…

Unindexed Pension Cards. The 'Missing 22 drawers'

In recent days an issue has come to light that affects approximately 2 percent of the Pension Cards for 'soldiers died'.…

The Disabled First World War Soldier : how his pension was calculated

A man who was discharged as medically unfit where that unfitness was certified as being either caused by or aggravated b…

Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: how they fitted in to the bigger picture

As many member of The Western Front Association will know, especially the those who have accessed the pension records, t…

Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: how they fitted in to the bigger picture …

In an earlier article we looked at some cases of Pension records and compared the WFA's pension cards to files that are …

Pension Record Cards and Ledgers - how they fitted in to the bigger picture…

This is the third of three article intended to show what is available at The National Archives ('TNA') at Kew in the PIN…

Correction of errors on Fold3 - good news!

Member of The Western Front Association will be pleased to learn that the 'correction of errors process' which is detail…

Correction of transcription errors on Fold3

The feedback about the accuracy of the tagging (or indexing) of the WFA's pension records of Fold3 suggests this has bee…

'1917' - using the Pension Records to track down the characters in the film…

The new film '1917' by Sam Mendes is about to be released in the UK (and has already been released in the USA). It has b…

How to use the 'Browse' function on Fold3 when researching the WFA Pension …

The intention behind this article is to explain how to access Pension Ledgers on the WFA's Library edition of Fold3 by u…

Pension Record Cards - claims for soldiers who were killed

The next major release of images of the Pension Record cards saved by the WFA has now been made available to WFA members…

Finding Horace: A two minute search of the WFA's Pension Records provides t…

The Pension Cards and Ledgers that were saved by The Western Front Association are a valuable resource which will massiv…

An overview of the Pension System immediately after the War

The following article by Craig Suddick takes an overview of the pension system immediately after the First World War. W…

An analysis of the Mercantile Marine index cards

Within the millions of documents the WFA have saved was a small metal set of four drawers that - in the scale of the arc…

Pension Records for 'non-UK' soldiers

It was initially believed that the WFA's Pension Cards and Ledgers were only for claims for pensions for men who came fr…

Understanding the Ledger Indexing

This article aims to set out some of the technical aspects of the indexing of - and subcategories that make up - the 'le…

Index of counties within regions for Pension Records

This is to is to assist members undertaking Pension Record searches using the 'browse' facility on The Western Front Ass…

Great War Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: deeper understanding

The history of the Great War is not just about generals and statesmen. In examining the Great War, we can often overlo…

A Further Release of First World War Pension Records by Ancestry

Western Front Association members will already know that the Naval Records were released a few weeks ago, but today (10 …

Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: some examples of dependents' cards

Just part of one load of the records being transferred to the WFA's storage facility. Three HGVs were eventually requi…

Pension Records: Famous, Infamous, Extraordinary and Ordinary

The Western Front Association's Pension Record Card and Ledger archive which has been published online by Ancestry is a …

Dear David ... Pension Record Cards Feedback

Here's some feedback about the Pension Records lookups we have conducted for a wide range of individuals: Andrew Gilpin…

Release of Naval and Mercantile Marine Pension Records by Ancestry

Members of The Western Front Association will be delighted to learn that the first of a series of releases of the WFA's …

Announcing the launch of FREE member access to the digitised Pension Record…

We are delighted to announce that WFA members can freely access the Pension Records via the WFA web site. Had The …

Official correspondence following a death in the Great War – Private Cornel…

The improved availability of online records has made tracing of the life and service of a Great War soldier relatively e…

A draft of 100, all boys from the Kings Liverpool Regt

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 …

The Red Baron - his 'other rank' victims

There are many ways that The Western Front Association's pension records can be used for research purposes. In this arti…

Some numbers (and images) around the WFA's Pension Records

The Western Front Association recently saved from destruction around 8 million pension records of First World War Soldie…

Finding Great Uncle George

The following message from David Jenkins relates to the way the Pension Records can help find 'missing' relatives who we…

'One Hell of a Row': A War widow's pension

Grandfather was killed 7 weeks before the end of the First World War. His immediate family, that is his wife and three …

Ep. 94 – The Great War Pension Record Cards – David Tattersfield

David Tattersfield, The Western Front Association Trustee, talks about the First World War Pension Record Cards that the…

Further examples of unusual Pension Claims

As the various projects WFA members are working on move forward, it seems a good time to update members on just a couple…

Ministry of Pensions Regional Offices

After the First World War, the Ministry of Pensions (for a short time) created a number of regional offices in order to …

How Reference numbers were used in WW1 Pension claims at Chelsea and in the…

In this article the author looks at those pension reference systems used by the Ministry of Pensions, with specific refe…