This is a brief guide to researching British army records for an officera senior member of staff in the armed forces who served up to 1913. These records are varied and plentiful and the vast majority are available at The National Archives.
This guide will help you to find out if the information you are looking for exists, and if it does where to find it or more information about it.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the name and regimenta unit of infantry or cavalry forces in the British army of the person
- a date range to help focus search
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What records can I see online?
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Printed annual army lists (1754-1879)
Browse the printed army lists (WO 65) available as digital microfilm on DocumentsOnline. They are arranged by regiment, of the regular army only, and give the names of officers with dates of their commissions. They are indexed from 1766, but engineer and artillery officers are only included in the index from 1803.
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Campaign medals (1793-1949)
Search by name online in the campaign medal and award rolls (WO 100) using Ancestry (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.), if you know a person was awarded a specific medal. The medal rolls do not usually contain biographical information. You can also search these records on microfilm at The National Archives at Kew, but you will need to know the campaigna military campaign and the relevant regimenta unit of infantry or cavalry forces in the British army to use these records.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Officer's service records (1764-1913)
Consult the card index to officersofficer - a senior member of staff in the armed forces' service recordsservice record - a document recording the career of an individual in the armed forces in WO 25 and WO 76 in the reading rooms at The National Archives.
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Officers' commissions (1793-1870)
Look in Commander-in-Chief's Memoranda in WO 31 for personal applications to purchase and sell commissions. The records are arranged by the date the appointment or promotion was announced in the London Gazette.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, commission research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Sandhurst registers (1783-1964)
Visit the Sandhurst Collection website to search by name the registers of cadets who attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst 1783-1964 (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.). These contain the cadets' dates of attendance and may also include other personal information such as date of birth, school attended, religion and their father's profession.
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Records held locally
Search the Access to Archives (A2A) and National Register of Archives (NRA) databases to find records held in local archivesregional archives, libraries, and museums.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Books
Consult published Army Lists from 1759 onwards to trace an officer's career in the British army.
Read Army Records by William Spencer (The National Archives, 2008).
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Websites
Search the London Gazette for information about British Army officers' commissions and gallantry awards.
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In-depth research guides
British Army officers after 1913
British Army soldiers up to 1913