Research on a member of the 5th Royal Irish Lancer

[Ciaran Byrne]

Researching World War One British Military Records

My uncle fought with the 5th Royal Irish Lancers during World War one and the other day I decided to do some research on him. So off I went to the records office in Kew, London.

I did not know what to expect, I thought I would get a slip of paper with his name, rank number, any awards and that was about it. Well what a surprise I was in for. I took home about 15 pages of A3 photocopies, including his enlistment papers, medical records, conduct sheet duty sheet and some other even more interesting stuff such as a handwritten letter from him to his wife, a print of his foot (!?) with his shoe size, an award certificate for the 1914 medal and some other interesting stuff. My mum knew him quite well and all the stuff that was listed tied into what she had heard about him.

So, if you had anyone in your lineage who fought in WWI it may pay you to take a visit.

One thing though, the office was bombed in 1940 and a lot of records were destroyed. My girlfreind also went in search of any records for her Great Grandfather who was in the Tank Corps during WWI and only turned up a small certificate showing the medals he won.

You can view my findings at:

http://www.royalirishlancers.co.uk

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

You were very lucky, with 75% of all service records lost, most people end up with only an MIC, roll and a few War Diary extracts!

Ian

[Ciaran Byrne]

Hello Ian,

Yes, you are dead right. My girlfreind was researching her great grandfathers records (he served in the tank corps and all she got was a medal roll, nothing else.

I am going to attempt to look up a couple of other relations (one was in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers) but I think that I may only get snippetts of information as most of the records have been destroyed.

[Ciaran Byrne]

By the way Ian, Are you a fellow Londoner? We are a dying breed mate!