Search
- Home
- Search
Search results for Pension Cards.
Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: some examples of dependents' cards
/world-war-i-articles/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 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…
Further sets of Pension Records saved by The Western Front Association available on Ancestry
The Western Front Association are pleased to share the excellent news that Ancestry will be making publicly further Pension Records in the lead up to the 11th November 2018. Ancestry are working hard on the scanning and digitisation of the Pension Record Cards and Ledgers that The Western Front Association saved from destruction. As with the the …
Finding Great Uncle George
/world-war-i-articles/finding-great-uncle-george/
The following message from David Jenkins relates to the way the Pension Records can help find 'missing' relatives who were thought to have served in the First World War. As a First World War genealogist I must say a big thank you to you and your organisation for the work that you have put into getting the Pension Ledger records made available …
A Brief Guide showing how to use The WFA's Library Edition of Fold 3
/latest-news/2018/december-2018/a-brief-guide-showing-how-to-use-the-wfas-library-edition-of-fold-3/
Below are three videos created to help Western Front Association members log into the Pension Records via The Western Front Association's web site and also demonstrate some functions - and results - from the WFA's 'Library Edition' of Fold 3, which provides digital images of the Pension Records the WFA saved from destruction. To access these reco…
5 January 1916: Gnr Kei Marsh
/on-this-day/5-january-1916-gnr-kei-marsh/
Kei Marsh was a miner. In 1911 he was boarding with his family at 30 Thorn St, Burnley. Somehow there were 12 people sharing 4 rooms in this '2 up 2' down property comprising eight adults and four children. Kei died of pneumonia in Codford on 5 January 1916. Kei Marsh was 34 years of age and is buried in St.Mary's Churchyard, Codford…
Pension Record Cards - claims for soldiers who were killed
/world-war-i-articles/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. This article is intended to orientate members around these cards which represent claims for pensions for those men who were killed in the First World War. As WFA members are probably aware, these records are available for WFA m…
Two soldiers of the Great War remembered on a single headstone
/on-this-day/two-soldiers-of-the-great-war-remembered-on-a-single-headstone/
La Clytte Military Cemetery is a concentration cemetery located eight kilometres to the south west of Ypres in the village of Klijte. Walk through the main entrance to the end of one of the six rows of headstones nearest the War Stone and you will find an unusual headstone, possibly unique, dedicated to ‘The Memory of 204802 Pte. W Lumber and 34…
An analysis of the Mercantile Marine index cards
/world-war-i-articles/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 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 Red Baron - his 'other rank' victims
/world-war-i-articles/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 article, I wish to take a brief look at the 'other ranks' that became victims of Manfred von Richtofen - the Red Baron. Probably more books have been written about von Richtofen than any other individual who served in the First World…
Project ALIAS: A major scheme to locate men who served using a 'different' name
/world-war-i-articles/project-alias-a-major-scheme-to-locate-men-who-served-using-a-different-name/
There are many fascinating quirks within the Pension Record Cards which have been saved by The Western Front Association. One particular aspect that has come to the fore is the greater than expected use of aliases by soldiers. Without going into the reasons soldiers used pseudonyms,[1] the use of these aliases has been noticed by several people usi…
Unindexed Pension Cards. The 'Missing 22 drawers'
/world-war-i-articles/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 following article is to advise WFA members what to look out for in terms of 'un-indexed' names and also provides details of a work-around that will enable cards to be located despite the issue that has been flagged. Ancestr…
Pension Claims: Same Man, Different Claim
/world-war-i-articles/pension-claims-same-man-different-claim/
The following article, by Craig Suddick, looks at a fairly uncommon scenario: the pension claim for a deceased serviceman coming from two different sources, in two different regions. The issue, identified by the Ministry of Pensions potentially arose due to pension claims being administered regionally. Because of this regional administration, it so…
Pension Record Cards and Ledgers - how they fitted in to the bigger picture (part 3)
This is the third of three article intended to show what is available at The National Archives ('TNA') at Kew in the PIN26 series. As has been detailed in the first article and expanded on in the second article, PIN26 provides an insight into the soldiers' files from the Great War which have been destroyed, but which are referenced in the WFA's 'Pe…
The loss of HMT Dane
/world-war-i-articles/the-loss-of-hmt-dane/
Like most youngsters growing up in the 60s and 70s The Great War was a long time ago, and although my Grandad, Fred Booty, had medals in his china cabinet, along with an old photo of his brother Arthur, in Army uniform (who was the subject of a “Centenary of Relatives Lost in the Great War” article in the May 2016 Suffolk Branch Newsletter), the on…
Man Alive! The case of Stoker Joseph Brown
/world-war-i-articles/man-alive-the-case-of-stoker-joseph-brown/
On 26 July 1917 the obsolete cruiser HMS Ariadne was minelaying in the English Channel, a role for which she had not been designed. Above: HMS Ariadne. IWM Q 38161 Ariadne was the seventh (by completion date) of a class of eight similar ships (the Diadem class) that had been designed for trade protection and intended to be "capable of dealing…
Pension Cards made available for 'Widows and Dependents of Other Ranks Died'
/world-war-i-articles/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 has been made available by our partners Ancestry.co.uk via their ‘Fold3’ platform. As ever, these cards are freely available to WFA members who log into the WFA website. What has been released? The cards comprise well over a mi…
The War at Sea in Home Waters
/world-war-i-articles/the-war-at-sea-in-home-waters/
The war at sea was wide ranging from engaging with the German High Seas Fleet when it put to sea to maintaining the supply of food and materiale to the UK. Part of this strategy involved the Admiralty utilising domestic fishing vessels to defend our waters against the submarine menace. Often this was a perilous task both from the U-boats themselves…
How the Pension Cards and Ledgers interconnect
/world-war-i-articles/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 detailed in an article on The Western Front Association's website, however it is likely further examples of these cards will assist with an understanding of exactly what has been published. The 'widows and dependents cards' were creat…
The loss of Royal Navy monitor 'M-15' : 11 November 1917
/world-war-i-articles/the-loss-of-royal-navy-monitor-m-15-11-november-1917/
HMS 'M-15' was a First World War Royal Navy M15-class monitor. She was sunk off Gaza by German Submarine UC-38 on 11 November 1917. Above: HMS M-15 November 1917 saw the key battles that allowed British and Australian forces to break through from the Sinai Peninsula and into Palestine. Turkish and German defences extended from the Mediterranean…
Project Alias - the results and a searchable database
/world-war-i-articles/project-alias-the-results-and-a-searchable-database/
During the First World War, for a variety of reasons, many soldiers enlisted and served under an ‘alias’ name i.e. a name other than their family name. Official records often exist for these men under both of their names – their ‘real name’ and their ‘alias name’. This makes it difficult for family members and other researchers to find all of the r…
Census 1841 to 2021
/world-war-i-articles/census-1841-to-2021/
Anyone researching a person who served during the First World War will have some methods in common, and some of their own related to the context and purpose of their search. Over the last five years one of my responsibilities has been to research and refresh those we feature in the daily item ‘Remember On This Day’. This has been running for at lea…
Pension Record Card Project 'Hometown' and The French Connection
/world-war-i-articles/pension-record-card-project-hometown-and-the-french-connection/
While working on The Western Front Association's ‘Big Push’ project, my wife (Management) was adding addresses to the index in Ancestry’s Fold3 and came across this Pension Record Card for Beasey E J – it posed an interesting problem as the address appeared to be Villa Naunanuna, Braulis-sur-mer, France. A simple google search for this rather obscu…
A Royal Navy rating discharged as epileptic and destined for the Asylum
/world-war-i-articles/a-royal-navy-rating-discharged-as-epileptic-and-destined-for-the-asylum/
George Henry Howlett was born in Shoreditch the son of George William Howlett, a metal worker from Norfolk, and Alice Harriet Davis from Gloucestershire. George’s first period in the Royal Navy was from 1906, his civilian occupation on enlistment being a gas fitter. His initial posting was to the training ship HMS Impregnable, a 121 gun ship of 1…
Five Sons Lost in the First World War
/world-war-i-articles/five-sons-lost-in-the-first-world-war/
For many years, it was thought that only one British family had suffered the loss of five sons during the war. The story of the Souls family was told by Neil Oliver in 2005 in his book ‘Not Forgotten’, which followed the TV series of the same name with Ian Hislop. Two years later, Michael Walsh wrote about the five Beechey brothers in ‘Brothers…