Cataloguing British Army officer service...

Archives and military services often use specialised terms in their everyday operations. Here are a few explanations of key terms used in this blog post. More terms are also explained within the blog post itself.

What is a catalogue description?

Catalogue descriptions can be found on Discovery, our online catalogue. They help users find records they are looking for. They are not the record itself, but provide information and context for a record.

What is an officer?

In the British Army, an officer is someone with a high level of authority. Depending on their exact rank, they will hold different levels of authority.

nam.ac.uk

Learn more about military rank

More information on military rank and its meaning can be found on the National Army Museum’s website.

What is a service record?

A service record provides an overview of someone’s military career. This typically includes details like any promotions they have received, notes on conduct, and when they were discharged.

Project background

During 2020, volunteers working remotely for The National Archives re-catalogued some of our officers’ service records from the WO 25 and WO 76 series. This involved correcting and completing catalogue descriptions, which can be found in Discovery.

In 2025, our volunteers returned to this project (now in person). Currently, they are continuing to improve the catalogue descriptions for our 19th-century officers’ records in the WO 25 series.

Thanks to this work, Discovery users can find the following information within updated catalogue descriptions:

Name
Rank
Date and place of birth
First and last rank
Dates of service
Genealogical (family) details

This information helps make our catalogue more searchable and informative about the records we hold.

Royal Engineers records

Some of the first records we aimed to catalogue for this project relate to the Royal Engineers, found in the WO 25/3913–3920 sub-series. They were responsible for providing specialised engineering and technical support to the British Army.

Clarifying how long people served

One issue within previous WO 25/3913–3920 catalogue descriptions was that dates of service were not given for each Royal Engineer. Instead, service dates were grouped at piece level, which could include a whole folder, volume (book) or box of documents rather than one person’s service records. This made it seem as though everyone listed in WO 25/3913 served from 1796–1860. In most cases this is inaccurate, as length of service can vary greatly by person. This is something that our volunteers have now.

For example, John Fox Burgoyne’s service record shows that he enlisted as a Gentleman Cadet in 1796, was later appointed as a Field Marshal in 1868 and then died in 1871. Due to this, the dates on his record have been updated from 1796–1860 to 1796–1871.

Additionally, the original catalogue description did not provide other details from Burgoyne’s record. This includes his marriage to Charlotte Rose in 1821 and that he had eight children with her, as well as the children’s names. We have added these details to the catalogue description to improve the amount of information users can access.

20th-Century Royal Engineer records

Later service records for the Royal Engineers may also be important for people researching the First World War (1914–1918) and beyond. Due to this, these records became another key focus for our volunteers.

For instance, Royal Engineer Graham Trevor Pound’s service record was not previously catalogued under the WO 25 series in Discovery. Until now, users could only find three records (His Long Number Paper – which was a type of service record specific to the First World War – and and two medal cards) related to his service. To address this, our volunteers have added his service record to Discovery under the new catalogue reference WO 25/3920/231.

Uncovering well-known figures

Our volunteers have found fascinating stories when cataloguing these later WO 25/3914 records. For example, one volunteer came across and recognised Lord Kitchener’s service record. Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the 1st Earl Kitchener, was a key military and colonial figure. His military titles included:

Commander-in-Chief of British Forces in South Africa during the Second Boer War (which lasted from 1899–1902)
Secretary of State for War during the First World War
Commander-in-Chief of India (1902–1909)

He is perhaps most recognisable today as the face of the ‘Britons. Join Your Country's Army!’ recruitment poster. This encouraged young men to join the army at the start of the First World War.

Central image of Lord Kitchener pointing, with the title in red at the top. Red text sits below, with black text at bottom right, on a white background. Includes “BRITONS WANT YOU… JOIN YOUR COUNTRY’S ARMY!”. — 'Britons. Join Your Country's Army!' poster featuring Lord Kitchener, 1914.
IWM (Art.IWM PST 2734)

The original catalogue description for Kitchener’s service record in Discovery simply stated:

Name: H H Kitchener of Khartoum. Regiment: Royal Engineers. Date of Service: 1860-1921.

As well as missing key information, this description was inaccurate. This is because Kitchener died aboard the HMS Hampshire on 6 June 1916. Clearly then, he could not have served until 1921.

An updated catalogue description will now read:

WO 25/3914/304

Folio 335, Horatio Herbert Kitchener; Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, KG, GCSI, OM, born: Gunsborough Villa, Kerry, 24 June 1850.

First rank: Lieutenant, 4 January 1871.

Last rank: Field Marshal, 10 September 1909.

Died: 5 June 1916.

A white page with black handwriting and a section of newspaper attached — Lord H Kitchener's service record. His extensive career is detailed over two pages. Catalogue reference: WO 25/3914/304

white page with hand written text — The second page of Lord H Kitchener's service record.

Uncovering service progression

Our officer service record collection includes many examples of previously non-commissioned officers receiving a rank of Ensign or Lieutenant. This is a promotion to a higher level of leadership. It meant that personnel were moved from a non-commissioned officer (with limited leadership responsibility) to an officer (who holds a high level of leadership command).

Often, this was done to qualify personnel for higher-ranking roles by giving them an honorary rank.

The records also include details on quartermasters (people who managed supplies and storage) and paymasters (people who organised payroll).

For example, Timothy Morrie, born 1809 in Herefordshire, joined as a Private in the 46th Regiment of Foot. In 1844 he was appointed as a Quartermaster Sergeant in 30th Regiment of Foot. He was then commissioned as a Cornet or Ensign in 1847. Now a commissioned officer, he was appointed as Quartermaster later that year. He kept this rank until 1856.

This newly rediscovered record, and others like it, will also be given updated catalogue descriptions to support Discovery users with their research.

White paper with black handwritten text — Timothy Morrie's service record.

Thanks to our volunteer’s rediscovering of Timothy’s story (and others like it), we can learn more about service personnel and their incredible, yet often forgotten work. It also gives us insight into how people progressed through army ranks during the 19th-century.

Cataloguing beyond individual service records: regiments

Aside from individual service records, the WO 25 series includes records related to groups of army personnel. This includes lists of men who served in regiments (a military unit).

These regiment lists are detailed in books, most of which contain too much information to be catalogued by our team. For instance, these books contain 30–50 names per page, and some names are not readable or identifiable. Despite this, our volunteers have catalogued a few of the smaller books. For example, we have been able to improve the catalogue description for record WO 25/309. Originally, this was described as:

1 Foot 1 Battn

We have expanded on this to the following catalogue description:

Roll of the men of the 1st (Royal) Regiment of Foot, 1st Battalion. The details found in the volumes include dates of attestation, where born, description and how discharged.

To our knowledge, this may be the only military record we hold for these men. Due to this, our volunteers have been proud to preserve their memory and make their records more accessible to the public and researchers.

Additionally, volunteers have been able to create an updated catalogue description for various dragoon regiments (which include horse-mounted soldiers). These records can include lists of horses by company (a sub-unit in the army) including each horse's name, colour, size and their date of joining. Therefore, this work has unlocked a great resource for understanding the British Army equine service.

None of this could have been achieved without the work of our volunteers. Their efforts have made our catalogue more searchable while uncovering stories that could have been lost to history. This has has been invaluable to improving Discovery.

Cataloguing British Army officer service records

Project background