Service papers/Pension papers question.

[Laird of Camster]

Ladies/Gents,

I have the pension papers for a soldier (I believe they have come from ancestry.com), but I was wondering if there might be further service papers available at Kew. Has anyone got any experience of this type of thing happening? Or were service papers and pension papers contained in the same archive at Kew.

I have also learned of soldiers wills being available, what type of information do these documents contain. Am I right in thinking that the will just contains money left to family or whoever or do they sometime go into greater detail, that might aid my research?

Gordon.

[keithmroberts]

If you use the search function you will find information on the wills, likewise google. They were not in the same archive.

Keith

[Laird of Camster]

Thanks Keith, could I just clarify the pensions and service papers are not in the same archives, or the wills are in a different archive from the other two?

[David_Underdown]

Pensions and service papers are both held by The National Archives (as series WO 364 and WO 363 respectively), and available online via Ancestry, again forming separate collections, but both under their military collection. The wills are still held by the Probate Service and have their own online service. There are a few different types of will depending which army form they used, but broadly they show the beneficiary or beneficiaries (which might reveal info about a sweetheart or fiancé that wouldn't otherwise be obvious). The covering envelope will show details of where and when he died. The date the will was made out will often be close to when he went overseas which can be useful if there is no service record.

[Laird of Camster]

Many thanks David it appears I have several further avenues of research to explore!!