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

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Just part of one load of the records being transferred to the WFA's storage facility. Three HGVs were eventually required to complete the transfer. One of the numerous types of record that comprises The Western Front Association Pension Record Card and Ledger Archive is a 'run' of about one million cards representing soldiers, sailors and airmen…

A Further Release of First World War Pension Records by Ancestry

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Western Front Association members will already know that the Naval Records were released a few weeks ago, but today (10 November 2018), Ancestry have made 1.5 million records available on their Fold 3 platform (please see FAQs below regarding WFA members' access to these). Until The Western Front Association stepped in to save these ledgers and ot…

Official correspondence following a death in the Great War – Private Cornelius Hayes, Cheshire Regiment

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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 …

An analysis of the Mercantile Marine index cards

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Within the millions of documents the WFA have saved was a small metal set of four drawers that - in the scale of the archive - is minute, constituting less than 0.1% of the total archive. The cards in this set of drawers (see photo below) numbered less than 4,300 and were - as can be seen - labelled 'Mercantile Marines in the Great War'. These card…

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

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A man who was discharged as medically unfit where that unfitness was certified as being either caused by or aggravated by military service was eligible to apply for a disability pension. Later in the war, as men were being demobilised, they were given the chance to put forward any disability for assessment by the Ministry of Pensions. Any disabilit…

Project ALIAS - Collaborative WW1 Pension Records Project

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Project ALIAS - the largest collaborative project in the history of The Western Front Association This article pre-supposes that the reader is familiar with:- The Commonwealth War Graves Committee (CWGC) and its website Ancestry & Fold3 websites the Pension Record Cards (PRC), Ledgers and Medal Index Cards ( MIC) held in Fold3. A lot h…

Ministry of Pensions Regional Offices

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After the First World War, the Ministry of Pensions (for a short time) created a number of regional offices in order to deal with the administration of pensions paid to disabled soldiers. The location of these offices had been a bit of a mystery. Until now. It is of interest to know where the administration of these pensions took place. Some of t…

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

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In this article the author looks at those pension reference systems used by the Ministry of Pensions, with specific reference to Chelsea and the Pension Issue Office, across the period of 1914 to the 1920s. Within the monolith that was the Ministry of Pensions, the two largest departments were Chelsea, which dealt with all pensions for disabled so…

'Health in returning veterans of the First World War: The impact of wounds, agassing, injury, and medical and psychological conditions from a study of the pension ledgers' by Dr Peter Hodgkinson

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Introduction – disability and impairment In 2021 some 24 volunteers from The Western Front Association transcribed the key details from 25,000 pension ledger records for soldiers, naval and air force personnel. The pension ledgers use the word ‘disability’. Modern disability studies and the associated social model of disability make a distinction…