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Group photo of army officers (Catalogue reference: AIR 1/725/100/2)

This is a brief guide to researching British army records for an officera senior member of staff in the armed forces after 1913.

The National Archives has a substantial collection of records covering this period, but many other documents were destroyed or badly damaged.

 Some service recordsservice record - a document recording the career of an individual in the armed forces are still held by the Ministry of Defence.

Officer ranks include Lieutanant, Captain, Major, Colonel, Brigadier and General. The Ministry of Defence website has more detail.

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

    • Officers' service records (1914-1922)

      Search officers' service records in record series WO 339 and WO 374 by surname in Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies. The content of the files varies - some have simply a note of the date of death whilst others contain attestation papers for those commissioned from the ranks, a record of service, personal correspondence and other items.

      WO 339 contains records of officers who finished serving before 1922. It includes officers who were given a temporary commission in the regular army, those who were commissioned into the Special Reserve of officers and those who were regular army officers before the war.

      WO 374 contains records for officers given a Territorial Army commission or a temporary commission.

      The search below is only suitable for unusual surnames. Common surnames are likely to provide too many results in which case it is necessary to check the indexes in WO 338 (see above) for the officer's long number. Then look up the long number in WO 339 using the Advanced search in our catalogue. 


      Search below by surname only (WO 339, WO 374).

    • Campaign medal rolls (for 1914-1918 service)

      Locate the campaign medala medal awarded to a person who took part in a particular military campaign roll in WO 329 for an officer who served in the First World War.

       

      If you find the officer's medal index card in WO 372 (see above), make a note of the reference in the 'Roll' column for a particular campaign medal. Search our catalogue using this reference in quotation marks.

      Reference examples: "OFF/25", "OFF/100"

    • Famous army officers

      Service records of a few notable individuals such as Wilfred Owen and Field Marshal Douglas Haig are in WO 138.

  • 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 monthly lists (1798-1940), quarterly lists (1879-1922 and 1940-1950) and half-yearly lists (1923-1950), as well as the ongoing modern Army List (1951-), for the regular army in this period. All the monthly lists and the quarterly lists for 1940-1950 include officers of colonial, militia and territorial units. All lists contain dates of birth and promotions.

      Monthly lists:

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

      Quarterly lists:

      • list officers in order of seniority
      • include details of officers' war service from April 1881 (in January issue only, 1909-1922)

      Half-yearly lists:

      • list officers in order of seniority
      • January issue includes retired officers
      • issued annually only, from February 1947

    • Websites

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

    • Other books

      Read First World War Army Service Records by William Spencer (The National Archives, 2008).

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

Related guides

Did you know?

The National Archives does not hold army service recordsservice record - a document recording the career of an individual in the armed forces for the Second World War. They are still with the Ministry of Defence.

There are over 217,000 British army officersofficer - a senior member of staff in the armed forces' service records for the First World War held by The National Archives. An officer's file originally had three parts but two of these were destroyed by enemy action in September 1940. What remains was heavily weeded prior to 1940 and in many cases this means that nothing remains for many officers.

When searching for a person you may find information on:

Not all officers applied for their campaign medals, so if an officer did not apply, there will be no medal index card. The campaign medal roll usually contains the same information as the medal index card, but it may also give the battalion number.

 

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