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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Soldiers Wills


petwes

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33 minutes ago, ss002d6252 said:

Just looked through my copy of the mobilization regs which add that;

 

In respect of regulars and special reservists the OC will send, for safekeeping with the OC i/c Records, any wills not held in a AB64 if requested by the soldier.

 

In respect of territorials the OC will send, for safekeeping with the OC i/c Territorial Records, any wills not held in a AB64 if requested by the soldier. There is an additional point which suggests that, for those who hadn't signed the ISO, the AB64 could be sent to the records office if the soldier wanted that will held.

 

Craig

Is there any instruction about returning the will to the soldier? I remember seeing note in the record of a Scots Guardsman (who survived the war) indicat ing the date when it was returned to him..

 

RM

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37 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

Is there any instruction about returning the will to the soldier? I remember seeing note in the record of a Scots Guardsman (who survived the war) indicating the date when it was returned to him..

 

RM

No - the mobilization regs only cover the sending of the wills to the records office. As it was for safekeeping there must have been a process for requesting it back but nothing I've seen so far indicates anything regarding that process.


Craig

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I've just read Peter Hodgkinson's article in the latest Stand To! which has some interesting points about the use of AB64 in identification of bodies recovered in the Ypres Salient.

On a separate point I have been thinking of carrying out a random analysis of records from the Register of soldier's effects.  Can anyone point me towards  any information about the registers please? For example what I am looking for is how many register books there were and how they were organised. Would I be correct in surmising  they are arranged in roughly date order in regional groupings?

Peter

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17 minutes ago, petwes said:

I've just read Peter Hodgkinson's article in the latest Stand To! which has some interesting points about the use of AB64 in identification of bodies recovered in the Ypres Salient.

On a separate point I have been thinking of carrying out a random analysis of records from the Register of soldier's effects.  Can anyone point me towards  any information about the registers please? For example what I am looking for is how many register books there were and how they were organised. Would I be correct in surmising  they are arranged in roughly date order in regional groupings?

Peter

I haven't read my issue yet.

 

The registers were, pre-war, just an ongoing volume that was filled as needed. Once the war got under-way I haven't looked at the way the volumes were organised as I was just working on the war gratuity side. They certainly had multiple registers on the go at once and it appears that they were organised by army command/corps. They are in roughly date order but a lot of the time it depends on how fast the information came in and what order it was processed in (bearing in mind it was processed twice).


Craig

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Craig

Thanks.  I'll have a go at trying to create a catalog based on the Ancestry copies.

 

As a general question I think the originals are held by the National Army Museum.  Does anyone know if it is possible to research material in their archives?

I note they have the following listed in their inventory.  Is the first one what we refer to as  the "soldiers effects" records?

 

Peter

 

image.png.4d976d0c38e1519c4aed6f496739d39d.png

 

image.png.7cc91b6c09d47cf5ae0db890cfb7757a.png

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49 minutes ago, petwes said:

Craig

Thanks.  I'll have a go at trying to create a catalog based on the Ancestry copies.

 

As a general question I think the originals are held by the National Army Museum.  Does anyone know if it is possible to research material in their archives?

I note they have the following listed in their inventory.  Is the first one what we refer to as  the "soldiers effects" records?

 

Peter

 

image.png.4d976d0c38e1519c4aed6f496739d39d.png

 

image.png.7cc91b6c09d47cf5ae0db890cfb7757a.png

I think that's the one Peter as they start around 1902. Not sure if they have public access to them or not.

 

Craig

Edited by ss002d6252
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I suspect that the 150B is to do with the initial payments made to the family as it's not a gratuity form I've come across.

Craig

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/02/2019 at 12:11, ss002d6252 said:

I believe there was card index system but I have not been able to prove it fully as yet.

 

I have notes I collected from looking in to the war gratuity :

 

Craig

It's slightly off topic but I have been slowly working through the Soldiers Effects Registers.  There are so far (1916) over 600 Volumes each one seems also be linked to a Part of a list referenced using Roman numerals e.g. 15th Part of list ccccxcvi.

Back to the Index card question; I have found that so far (up to 1916) there seems that there was an Index register to the Registers of Officers Effects. It is a hand written ledger, with alphabetic tabs, that cross references to the actual effects registers.

Here's a clip:

image.png.f0b1762413d9ecff517b4158cb35350f.png

 

I might yet find similar for Soldiers but due to the numbers involved suspect there was a more practical index card system. I think the existence of a cataloguing  system for Officers strongly points to something similar for ORs.

Peter

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1 minute ago, petwes said:

It's slightly off topic but I have been slowly working through the Soldiers Effects Registers.  There are so far (1916) over 600 Volumes each one seems also be linked to a Part of a list referenced using Roman numerals e.g. 15th Part of list ccccxcvi.

Back to the Index card question; I have found that so far (up to 1916) there seems that there was an Index register to the Registers of Officers Effects. It is a hand written ledger, with alphabetic tabs, that cross references to the actual effects registers. 

Here's a clip: 

image.png.f0b1762413d9ecff517b4158cb35350f.png

 

I might yet find similar for Soldiers but due to the numbers involved suspect there was a more practical index card system. I think the existence of a cataloguing  system for Officers strongly points to something similar for ORs.

Peter

I have no doubt Peter (and what a shame it's gone). I think the index card industry must have been booming in 1914-18 as card indexes seemed to be the go to method. I was looking at the process under the National Registration Act and Conscription and there were at least 5 different card indexes (and several ledger sets) involved.


Craig

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