If your ancestor died serving with the British Army between 1901 and 1929, it’s worth consulting our Soldiers’ Effects Records. This fascinating collection could reveal new information about your military ancestor.
What are the Soldiers’ Effects Records?
Despite the title, these are not records of a soldier’s possessions. The collection details any money or war gratuities owed to the next of kin of soldiers who died serving with the British Army. The military information provided and the references to the soldier’s next of kin make this a valuable collection for family historians.
Below are some of the highlights from the Soldiers’ Effects Records.
Exploring the collection
Entries in this collection contain basic military details to help you identify your ancestor, such as:
- Name
- Number
- Rank
- Regiment and battalion
- Date and place of death
- Circumstance of death (often killed in action or died of wounds)
Entries for casualties before WWI or in the early stages of the war usually contain the soldier’s place of birth, enlistment date and trade. These clues add further detail to your ancestor’s story and may help you identify them in the collection. See the image below relating to Benjamin Chance:
The presence of a soldier’s next of kin within the records allows you to make a positive connection to your ancestor, which may not have been possible in other military collections. This is a particularly beneficial feature if you are researching a casualty with a common name, perhaps making the process of elimination slightly more manageable based on the presence of next of kin info.
Some entries, like the one below for Charles Grimwood, contain multiple next of kin. Here, Charles’s father, brother, sister and sister-in-law are named. Each name corresponds with a payment. Charles’s father, George, has the words ‘sole leg’ next to his name, meaning sole legatee. This entry is written in blue ink and relates to the pay owed to Charles at the time of his death. The remaining names are written in red ink and relate to the war gratuity paid after the war:
An interesting feature of this collection is the entries detailing a person’s specific location of death. You may be aware that your ancestor died of wounds, for example. Occasionally, their entry in the Soldiers’ Effects Records will detail where they died of wounds, such as a specific hospital, Casualty Clearing Station (CCS), or while a prisoner of war (POW). This information, such as the hospital or CCS, doesn’t often feature on other traditional military records. Identifying these clues in the records represents an opportunity to add new and revealing information to your ancestor’s military story. The entry below is for Herbert Bythell, who died at Number 19 Casualty Clearing Station in France.
Further considerations
During our research, we have encountered entries for soldiers deemed to have died but later confirmed as prisoners of war. The entries usually contain the phrase ‘man alive’, like the extract below for Alfred Best:
- Remember, if you are researching an officer of the British Army, their entry in the collection spans two pages instead of one.
- You may, on occasion, find two entries for an ancestor.
Although the collection focuses on the British Army, there are several entries for Australians and New Zealanders who died serving during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). See the entry below for J. McKenzie: