Search | The Western Front Association

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…

A Further Release of First World War Pension Records by Ancestry

/world-war-i-articles/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 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…

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

/world-war-i-articles/one-hell-of-a-row-a-war-widows-pension/

Grandfather was killed 7 weeks before the end of the First World War. His immediate family, that is his wife and three sons, never knew how nor where. Neither did they know he was commemorated on Panel 5 of the Memorial Wall at Tyne Cot Cemetery. This we had from two of his sons, our Father and his brother, our Uncle Tom. Towards the end of the…

'The Lost Raiders Found': The Tyneside Scottish at Armentières

/world-war-i-articles/the-lost-raiders-found-the-tyneside-scottish-at-armentières/

During the Great War trench raids were perceived as an operational necessity in order to dominate No Man's Land, to take prisoners and to ensure British and empire troops retained an offensive spirit. These raids frequently came at a heavy cost in lives and, if care was not taken, could result in identification being provided to the enemy - the …

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…

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…

Pension Record Cards and Ledgers: how they fitted in to the bigger picture (part 2)

/world-war-i-articles/pension-record-cards-and-ledgers-how-they-fitted-in-to-the-bigger-picture-part-2/

In an earlier article we looked at some cases of Pension records and compared the WFA's pension cards to files that are retained in The National Archives in the 'PIN26' class. This is the second of three articles that will look to examine these records, and enable researchers to compare the files to the WFA's records. Joe Bridgewood The first …

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…

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…