Another MIC

[Davben]

Hi Pals,

I`ve scanned in my G/fathers MIC and it shows he originally served in the Notts and Derby Regt ,before transferring to the Lancers, ( 21st Lancers) to be exact, and according to the Roll of individuals he served with the Lancers up to the end of the war.

Why was it listed as "Corps of Lancers" what does that mean?

Would the Lancers have still been attached to the Notts and Derby Regt?

Also when I had these researched they told me that the service records did not survive, but gave me references to "burned Files" WO363/B75, and misfile film no:9, WO364/219, 4913, 5039 & 5803, but what do all these numbers mean?

Can any of these burned files be read?

[Terry_Reeves]

Dave

He served in both units, Notts and Derby first and then 21 st Lancers. The term " Corps of Lancers" is essentially a generic term that embraced all Lancer regiments. WO363 refers to the burnt series of documents, but they can be read with varying degrees of difficulty or success. B is his surname letter and 75 should be the drawer number of the filing cabinet. The cabinet is actually in row 7 at the NA for that series of records.

WO 364 contains service papers that were reconstructed from pension records. They are supposed to only contain records of men who were discharged from disabilty of injury, however I have seen records in there that pertain to soldiers who appear to have been quite healthy on dischrage, so you must explore those as well. The mis-sorts are exactly that. Files that were found out of sequence. These were put on separate film.

Terry Reeves

[Davben]

Thanks Terry,

So essentially I could have copies of these burnt records sent to me , or obviously it would at the advise of the researcher , ie :condition or ledgablity of these copies.

[Guest March1918]

Davben,

Reading your original post and I may be wrong but my interpretation is that the researcher was telling you where he had conducted his searches These are exactly the locations for WWI service files. I would do the same. I suppose it is a way of justiflying the fact that he has come up empty handed on this occasion.

Peter

[Davben]

Thanks Peter,

would you recommend me going any further with this or are we saying this is the end of the line.

Dave.

[Guest March1918]

Dave,

One must never give up hope they say. The WO 363 which would have contained all soldier's files were fire and water damaged in the Blitz and only about 1/3rd survive. The WO 364 series, documents recovered from pension records applied to only about 10% of soldiers. There is other material at TNA including Prisoner of War details in WO 161, some medical records in MH 106 and a relatively small number of claims due to invalidity in PIN 26. If you haven't already done so a copy of the medal rolls would be useful and may give the unit he served with allowing at least some indication of active service. There will be two, one for the Star and one covering both the War Medal and Victory. But the National Archives isn't the only source of information and you may next consider contacting the relevant regimental museums to see if their records list your relative. Most will tell you they don’t keep servicemen’s details. Transferring the records to Whitehall was evidently a bad move. Also there should be county archives which may have information on war service and not forgetting local newspapers that frequently reported what the could glean from the front concerning local ‘heroes’, casualties, men returning home etc.

Peter