Looking for records of a British Army officer up to 1913

• What do I need to know before I start?

  • 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
      

• What records can I see online?

  • Officers' service records (1764-1913)

    Search 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 by name in WO 25 and WO 76. Please note, these record descriptions have been created from a card index which was not comprehensive and may contain some errors.

    Narrow your search by using quotation marks to find a person's full name, such as "John Williams".

    Please note, this is a search across the entire catalogue description of each record, not just the name. A search for someone called Barnes, for example, may give some results for people born in Barnes.
    

    Name:

  • Alternatively browse WO 76 and WO 25 by regiment on digital microfilm.

  • Printed annual army lists (1754-1879)

    Browse the printed army lists (WO 65) available as digital microfilm via Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies. 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.

  • 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.

• What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?

  • Officers' commissions (1793-1870)

    Look in Commander-in-Chief's Memoranda in record series 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.

  • Manuscript army lists (1702-1752)

    Browse the manuscript army lists in WO 64 to trace an officer's promotions before the published army lists appeared in 1740.

  • To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for 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).

• What records can I find in other archives and organisations?

  • 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. 

  • 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.
    

• What other resources will help me find information?

  • Published British Army Lists

    Consult the official published Army Lists to trace an officer's career in the British Army. There are annual lists (1740-1879), quarterly lists (1879-1922) and monthly lists (1798-1940) for the regular army in this period. The monthly lists include officers of colonial, militia and territorial units. All lists contain dates of birth and promotions.

    Officers on half pay can be traced in the Army Lists, which give date of commencement.

    Annual lists:

    • arranged by regiment
    • name indexed from 1766 (except engineer and artillery officers)
    • name indexed for engineer and artillery officers from 1803

    Quarterly lists:

    • list officers in order of seniority
    • include details of officers' war service from April 1881

    Monthly lists:

    • name indexed from 1867
    • provide some details of a regiment's location

  • Other books

    Consult Hart's Army List by Henry George Hart (Smith, Elder & Co., 1839-1915), an unofficial alternative to the official Army List with details of officers' war service from 1839.

    Read Army Records by William Spencer (The National Archives, 2008).

  • Websites

    Search the London Gazette for information about British Army officers' commissions and gallantry awards.

• The National Archives is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Related guides

• British Army officers after 1913
• British Army soldiers up to 1913
• British Army officers up to 1913: further research

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