Medal Index Card
First off the most common item you can look for is the Medal Index Card (MIC). Each soldier who served was given one. These list the medal entitlement of that soldier, the numbers can be looked up at Kew itself to see where the medals were sent to and possibly what Btn that soldier served in. They can also have the date when the soldier went to service and where but this is rare after 1915, but does occur.
How do you search?
Simple you go to the National Archives website and click on "Search The Archives" from the menu and then click DocumentsOnline. From their just click the Advanced Search and type in the name of the soldier. You can narrow it by regiment or rank by using the "Other" box.
Quick Link:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/docu ... owersearch
War Diaries
These are another powerful tool in looking for what the soldier was up to prior to his death or when he was serving. They were usually written by the Commanding Officer or Intelligence Officer and detail the day to day happening of the Batallion. Usually the War Diaries only mention Officers when they are killed and possibly the soldier by reference. I have seen one War Diary where soldiers names and numbers are mentioned as they are being awarded the Military Medal.
How do you search?
They are held at the National Archives under reference WO95. Again click "Search The Archives" and then Catalogue and type in WO95 in the search. Ok this gives you the details of what the record is.
You can do much further searching by clicking on "Search" and where it asks for Department or Series Code enter WO95. In the word or phrase box enter the regiment you are looking for, such as Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. This returns a list of War Diaries for that regiment with a list of the Batallions and dates for each record held at the National Archives.
You can either order these from the "Request This" button BUT some of them are on DocumentsOnline. If you click on the enrty you are looking for there is a reference code for that record. Copy that and paste it into the search box at DocumentsOnline. Only some of them are online such as the Manchester's.
Example
Below is an example of an entry into a War Diary for the 23rd Btn of the Manchester Regiment.
April 4th 1916
"The Bat moved from Sailly and took over from the 19th Batt Dur. Light Inf. trenches N10.1 inclusive to N 10.5 inclsusive. (Nice Bde Trench Map Area M. Sheet 36). The 17th Lanc. Fus were on our right and the 16th Roy. Scots on our left."
Admission and Discharge Registers of Casualty Clearing Stations
I personally have not seen an entry from these but each Casualty Clearing Station and Medical Unit had an Admission and Discharge book which listed all the casualties who were admitted and discharged from the unit.
Quote from the Great War Forum
How to know what Casualty Clearing Station is where?The following units are those for which Admission and Discharge registers survive at the National Archives in MH106. In total there are 2078 of these registers, and the number includes some operation books, and miscellaneous registers. These registers cover units in most theatres – Western Front, Egypt, Salonika, Serbia and Russia [1919]; some are complete, while some are for specific dates only, and as the units moved around some have records for more than one location. One of the most complete, No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station has a total of 153 registers, covering the period from September 23rd 1914 until 6th December 1918. Most units held separate registers for different nationalities, and in most cases British troops will not be combined with those, say, from Canada or India. Officers details are normally held in different registers from other ranks. The registers for hospitals in the UK, i.e. Napsbury, Millbank, Craiglockhart, Catterick, are kept both in date order, and separately for each theatre of war in which the men had served prior to admission.
14th Field Ambulance
51st Field Ambulance
66th Field Ambulance
139th Field Ambulance
149th Field Ambulance
No. 3 Casualty Clearing Station
No. 11 Casualty Clearing Station
No. 31 Casualty Clearing Station
No. 34 Casualty Clearing Station
No. 34 Combined Casualty Clearing Station
No. 39 Casualty Clearing Station
No. 82 Casualty Clearing Station
Bakharitza Detention Hospital
2nd General Hospital
18th General Hospital
19th General Hospital [Alexandria]
28th General Hospital
85th General Hospital
4th Stationary Hospital
County of Middlesex War Hospital, Napsbury
Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank
Mrs. Mitchison’s Hospital for officers
Catterick Military Hospital
Craiglockhart Hospital, Edinburgh
Eccles Auxiliary Hospital
Bowhill Auxiliary Hospital, Selkirk (officers)
Lennel Auxiliary Hospital (officers)
Coldstream Mains (officers)
Craiglea Annexe, Edinburgh (officers)
H.M. Hospital Ship ‘Assaye’
No. 31 Ambulance Train
By looking at the following page from the Long Long Trail website:
http://www.1914-1918.net/ccs.htm
Pension Records
I have not looked at these myself as I believe they are on Ancestry and with only surnames A and B. Hopefully someone can correct me on this if I am wrong.
If the soldier survived it is more than likely they were given an army pension. This increases the likelihood that the service record survives as it was required by the MOD/whoever was dealing with it, to enable the pension to be processed.
Service Records
I have not touched on these yet as they can only be accessed from Kew and from the LDS but if someone has looked for you and said that the record is there apparently the National Archives can copy it for you if you have the reference of the Microfilm it is on and which frames. The other reason why I have left these til last is that only 30% of them survive to this day due to bombing and flood damage caused during World War 2.
These can be found in WO363, WO364 and theres is also one called mis-sorts which I believe to be random pieces of records.
