george french Posted 15 December , 2005 Share Posted 15 December , 2005 I hope this isn`t a silly question! but are the remaining/surviving records at Kew a random selection or were specific records eg alphabetical destroyed or irreparably damaged...... George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Bagshaw Posted 15 December , 2005 Share Posted 15 December , 2005 George, Around 75% of the records were destroyed. Most of the remaining ones have water and fire damage, you have to be very lucky for them to still be there! Sorry, should also have said that almost all of Officers papers have survived! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 15 December , 2005 Share Posted 15 December , 2005 The figure of 75% is not entirely correct; the records of men who were killed, or discharged at wars end, suffered heavy bombing in WW2, and a high percentage were damaged OR destroyed. Some unit's service records were stored elsewhere, and thus records to men of those units, when they were reunited with the sequence that is now WO363 (at an unspecified time) thus appear more commonly; ASC, Labour Corps etc come to mind. The records of men discharged to pension (through wounds, sickness etc) were stored in a different place, and were not affected by the bombing. Officers records were not bombed, but they were weeded on at least two major occasions, which means many officers files contain nothing except paperwork relating to pay or pensions, or whole series (ie. RAMC temporary officers) have not survived at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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