My experience of research using the Pension Record Cards

[Promenade]

I have looked at just over 1,000 pension cards relating to soldiers who were killed (and about 400 who survived) with the Worcestershire Regiment during the war.

 

I believe that the availability of this resource is the most significant since the release of the ‘other ranks’ papers many years ago. The cards often contain information that is not available elsewhere – nor is it likely to be.

 

My thanks go out to the WFA for saving the ledgers and the cards for posterity and for making them available to members free of charge.

 

I have found 79% of the cards I searched for, i.e. those who were killed (N.B. this is only a fraction of those who were killed with the regiment). I have to point out that I have not tried any of the workarounds for the drawers that were not indexed nor have I tried alternate ways of looking for the cards that I could not find when using a simple surname & number search. The percentage may also be skewed by the fact that, in the main, I was looking for information on men with basic entries in the CWGC registers – it may be that a next of kin could not be found and therefore no pension claim was made therefore no card – I do not believe this to be a major effect.

 

The cards have proved useful to me in the following ways:-

 

 

1.       Providing the names and dates of birth of children (some of them illegitimate and at least in one case illegitimate step-children)

 

 

2.       Identifying brothers who died in the war.

 

 

3.       Identifying Christian names of men who served with the Mil Police (often missing from medal rolls).

 

4.       The dates of birth of widows is useful in tracking them in the 1939 Register.

 

5.       Can give cause of death if not kia/dow – useful in determining the cause of death those men listed as ‘d.’ in Soldiers Died in the Great War (see examples below.

 

6.       Especially useful in identifying a man with a common name from a photo if there is an address mentioned.

 

7.       Sorting out the Smiths and Jones’s.

 

8.       Gives information on the spouses of widows if they remarried (many married serving soldiers)

 

 

9.       The data on the pension cards can complement the information in the Soldiers Effects Ledgers.

 

10.   Many men who were killed have basic entries in the CWGC registers. From other sources all that is known is usually where they were born, enlisted and resided (from Soldiers Died). The information on the cards has often enabled me to isolate the soldiers in the Census returns which in turn provided more information about their family.

 

To date I have found the officers cards less useful as much of the information is available elsewhere – but this is still research in progress.

 

 

 

A couple of cards stand out.

 

 

Edited 5 July , 2020 by Promenade

[corisande]

I agree that they can be really useful, often when you least expect it

 

I was able to find the real identity of a British Spy murdered by IRA in Dublin in 1921 from Pension Cards. His real identity had eluded me for years. He was shot as Bryan Fergus Molloy, and Soldiers Effects has that, but Pension Card gives his real identity

 

[Matlock1418]

17 minutes ago, Promenade said:

I believe that the availability of this resource is the most significant since the release of the ‘other ranks’ papers many years ago. The cards often contain information that is not available elsewhere – nor is it likely to be.

My thanks go out to the WFA for saving the ledgers and the cards for posterity and for making them available to members free of charge.

Promenade - Thank you for your post.

Of course the core thanks do go to the WFA and David Tattersfield et al.

However I would also like to point out the considerable effort that has been put into this asset by the many WFA volunteers who have helped with Project, Alias, Project Capture and Project Hometown which have been gathering much more useful data off the cards and also helping with transcriptions and improving the searchability/findability of results.

Many thanks to all.

:-) M

 

Edited 5 July , 2020 by Matlock1418

[John(txic)]

Our next Branch newsletter could really do with a report giving an insider's view of these projects, Matlock...

[David Tattersfield]

6 hours ago, Promenade said:

 

I believe that the availability of this resource is the most significant since the release of the ‘other ranks’ papers many years ago. The cards often contain information that is not available elsewhere – nor is it likely to be.

Many thanks for this review. Much appreciated. There is more to come of course....!