WW1 Discharge Papers/Records

[tessie31082]

Hi, my uncle is researching one side of the family and my gg grandad was in the army for WW1. I found some of his records on Ancestry. My uncle went to London on Friday and looked through the discharge papers and there were none there for my gg grandad. He asked at the help desk and they told him that no discharge papers were given if the person died whilst still in the army. Therefore, can he send away for any of his records from the army and if so where/how does he go about it?
Also, on the same side of the family my ggg grandad was in the army. On the 1871 he is a soldier patient at the district artillery barracks in S. Shoebury, Essex, he dies in 1881 (before the census). How do I find out his army number and get his records?

Many thanks for any help anyone can give on this.

Tessie

[annswabey]

Do you mean your Uncle went to Kew? It's not true that there are no papers for those who died in WW1. If he wasn't an officer any surviving papers for him will be on Ancestry. If he was killed in WW1 there won't be any papers anywhere else.

Regarding the man who died in 1881. Was he still in the Army when he died? If so, then in this instance there won't be any papers for him as he died in service. If he had left the Army when he died, then any discharge papers if they have survived, will be at Kew.

[ozgirl]

Can you confirm whether all existing records for soldiers (not an officer) who survived WWI would be on Ancestry? If I can't find anything for someone there, can I assume that the records were amongst those destroyed, or are there more at Kew that can be searched?

Thanks

Linda

[annswabey]

All the surviving records are supposed to be on Ancestry, so unless they aren't indexed properly then they should be on there!

[ozgirl]

Thanks Ann

[JBee]

Mind you some of them WW1 which are on ancestry seem to be charred around the edges!!

Soldier c 1881 - Try the quarterly pay list for the regiment if he was still serving in the army when he died. It will say why his pay stopped ie dead, deserted or end of service!!

Alternatively look at the muster lists of the regiment at a date you know he was serving and if you're lucky there aren't 2 of them with the same name it'll give you his number and you can trace back to when he joined and forward until he left.

One I researched recently I found out how old he was when he joined in 1840 , where he joined and what his occupation had been . Unfortunately it didn't give his place of birth, his parents so still can't get any further back. Also the pay returns showed the date and place of death - somehow it wasn't registered anywhere else - which is a pain.

[annswabey]

It's not practical to look at Musters if he was in the Royal Artillery - there were so many batteries and if you don't know which one he was in you're in for a very long search. If he wasn't in the RA you have to know regiment to search musters. I've looked at loads of them and followed many men's careers from start to finish. Really informative.

[teg]

Service records

Hi, if you ever find his army number maybe this link will beb of help in getting his records..

http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html