Date of joining + letters from the front - 2 questions

[phil1963]

Two easy questions:

1) I am researching 48 casualties on a war memorial and one idea is to establish how long each soldier served before their death. Are records of the date of joining still accessible for EVERY soldier and are these details easy to find? I don't want to put the 48 on here!

2) Apart from letters home from soldiers which are still with the families are any museums/web-sites where such can be found? I have found a letter sent home by one of the 48, a relative of one of the 48 has some and I believe that another relative will have some? I am mindful of copyright and privacy, but am wondering what happened to the millions that would have been sent home.

[Ed McKie]

This may or may not be relevant to question two.

My wife's grandfather was killed in 1917 and his widow remarried in 1920.

My wife has no recollection of her grandmother mentioning her grandfather in her hearing.

The grandmother was bombed out in the second world war and most of her possessions lost.

After she died we only came across the Bronze placque and scroll - no letters from the front.

As I say, may be typical, may be not.

regards Ed

[tullybrone]

Hi,

Dealing with point one you'd need to look at Ancestry and or Find My past sites.

They have the surviving soldiers papers from WW1 as well as Medal Index Cards, silver War Badges etc. Most service records were destroyed during WW2. If any of the subjects were in any of the Guards Regiments you can still get papers from the respective regimental headquarters on payment of £30.

You will see many posts on here from members trying to trace relatives war time experiences from their service numbers only.

It is a difficult job and often requires educated assumptions based on consulting regimental history books et.

I would exhaust all options on ANC & FMP above then post individual soldier requests. Before you do anything have a look at the Long Long Trail site.

Good Luck

Steve Y