by Kevin Lynott » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:07 pm
Anthea,
The military career of every soldier was recorded in great detail. His enlistment, postings, health, conduct and eventual discharge were all written down on official army forms. The forms used varied depending on the type of soldier Grandad was. On the other hand, the service records provide very little information on what the soldier actually did and where he went. They are often hard to read and full of army abbreviations and jargon, which you might need help to interpret. Copies of the various papers were kept in a single central file. A given man's file could contain very little or a great deal, depending on his circumstances and the various actions that thinned out the files once they were archived after the war.
Of the files that were not burned most were smoke or water damaged. The the surviving records have been microfilmed and are available to view at the National Archives. They are called the Burnt Series papers and are held in the WO363 classification. Microfilming and the damage has meant that in many cases the papers are not too legible. Some files contain only fragments of papers. This is the largest collection of army service records.
Luckily, two other sets of files had been extracted from the main archive, for pensions and other purposes. Together they add up to only a relatively small fraction of the existing records and a very small fraction of the original total. They have survived as the Unburnt Series WO364, with an additional sample in the Ministry of Pensions collection PIN26. They relate to men who had been discharged to pension (but it does not follow that if Grandad got a pension he is in here) and therefore do not in theory contain any files relating to soldiers who died. Generally the legibility of these papers is better than the Burnt ones. They are also held at the National Archives. The series WO363 and WO364 are on microfilm and PIN26 is in original form. They are freely available at the National Archives