Service Records

Regiments do not normally hold ANY historical service records for individuals unless there is something notable (like a VC, or Colonel of the Regiment for example). Even then it will probably not be a COMPLETE record.

Many WW1 records are available on Ancestry and FindMyPast. WW2 service records are generally not publicly available.

Service records after about 1920 are generally ONLY available to close relatives. (see UK Government website).

As a general rule it is easier to find details of those who were killed in action compared to those who survived.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website can provide brief details of War Dead from both WW1 and WW2. It will usually provide a service number and the name of the Regiment or other unit that the casualty was serving with at the time of death. It will also explain the history of the cemetery or War Memorial where the individual was buried or commemorated and the actions that took place nearby. It may also give details of next of kin.

Citations may be found for those who were awarded medals for gallantry; these can be found in the London Gazette or Regimental Diaries. But citations for the more common medals (such as the Military Medal) are often not to be found.

Australia and Canada

WW1 records for WW1 soldiers who served with Canadian or Australian forces can found on Canada Archives and National Archives of Australia.

Attestation

These days the word "enlist" is used to indicate the start of a soldier's service. However, the strictly correct term would be "attest". A recruit would answer certain questions about himself. He would then sign a form in the presence of a witness to indicate that his answers were true and that he was willing to serve. After a brief medical examination, a magistrate or senior army officer would also sign the form to confirm that the recruitment had been fairly and properly conducted. The date of signing the attestation form was the date when a man's service began for the purpose of calculating pay and pension.

Conscription and the Group System

At the start of WW1 the British army was made up of:

• serving regular soldiers
• reservists (regular soldiers who had served their period of engagement "with the Colours") who were recalled
• serving Territorals, who were "embodied" into the regular army
• volunteers

In May 1915 the age limit for volunteers was raised from 38 to 40 in an attempt to keep the numbers up, but it became clear that more action was needed. Lord Derby was appointed Director-General of Recruiting in October 1915 and he introduced the Group Scheme, under which men could volunteer either for immediate service, or could attest and go back to their homes and jobs until they were called up later. By registering in this way they would avoid compulsory conscription. It was intended that the younger single men would be called up before the older married men over a period of months during the first part of 1916. In practice, a significant number of those who did register under the scheme were not "fighting fit"; these men often had their call-up deferred for several months.

The Group System did increase the number of "volunteers", but in 1916 it became necessary to introduce Conscription. Men who were over 18 years of age but not yet 41 were "deemed to have enlisted" unless they had valid grounds for exemption.

Up to early 1916, many volunteers would enlist with their local regiment, but after this date men were allocated to whichever regiment or battalion needed recruits at the time. Although many Bollington men served with the Cheshire Regiment (especially the 7th Battalion), many found themselves in the Durham Light Infantry, the Northumberland Fusiliers, Welsh or Lancashire regiments, etc.

Demobilisation, Disembodiment and Discharge

These terms can be particularly confusing! Technically they don't all mean the same, but for most WW1 soldiers they all had the same effect - namely that their army service was over. And the terms are often interchanged, or at least loosely applied.

A man who was in the territorial army at the start of the war would have been "embodied" into the regular army. At the end of his war service he would have been "disembodied". The regular army was not concerned whether or not the man remained in the territorials. The same phraseology was usually also used for men called up from the reserves.

Civilians who enlisted would be "mobilised". Sometimes they would be held on a reserve list after attestation, especially older and/or married men, so mobilisation might be several weeks after attestation in some cases. But mobilisation meant that your army service was now serious and full-time! If you survived as "fighting fit" until the end of the war, you would be "demobilised" and sent home on a month's leave, after which time you were not allowed to wear uniform. However, you were not necessarily "discharged"! Once you were discharged, the military had no further claim on you.

Most survivors of the conflict were demobilised during 1919, although some volunteered for another year or two of "clearing up" and sometimes reconstruction. In the first months after the Armistice soldiers were demobilised to the reserves. Only when it became clear that there would be no more fighting did it become the practice to be "discharged on demobilisation". Many of those who had been demobilised were not officially notified of their discharge. They were "deemed to have been discharged" (in rather the same way that those who had been conscripted were "deemed to have enlisted".

There were a number of reasons why a man could be discharged. Apart from discharge on or following demobilisation, the most common reason was "being physically unfit for further war service (due to wounds or sickness)". Other reasons included "having completed his period of engagement" (usually when a soldier had enlisted for a fixed term before the outbreak of war) and "giving a mis-statement of age on enlistment" (a man's birth certificate would be checked against his attestation form). Sometimes during the inital training after recruitment it would become apparent that a man was "not likely to become an efficient soldier". Towards the end of the war a man might be "surplus to military requirements". All these definitions an be found in paragraph 392 of Kings Regulation 1912. Sub-para 16 is the one about being no longer fit for war service. (Read about the Silver War Badge on the Medals page.)

Regimental Numbers

Soldiers who served from 1920 onwards would have been allocated an army number that they retained throughout their career. However, this was not the case in WW1. In those days, each regiment had its own numbering system. Most regiments had 4 digit numbers in the early war years, but it soon became apparent that the system needed to be expanded, so most regiments changed to a 6 digit number and many soldiers were given a new number instead of the old one. If a soldier changed regiments during his war service he would be given a new number. Changing regiments was not that unusual - it might even happen between enlistment and mobilisation depending on the timing of training camps or the need for some battalions to be built up. A soldier may have been found to have particular skills or aptitudes needed by another unit. Or after a spell in hospital a soldier's original unit might have moved on, or he might not be fit to do what he did before.

Theatres of War

Most Bollington men who served overseas in the army before the end of 1915 were either at Gallipoli or on the Western Front. Many of those who served at Gallipoli went on to Palestine, Mesopotamia or Salonika. Note that the UK (or more correctly, anywhere in the British Isles) was NOT defined as a Theatre of War, so anyone who ONLY served on UK soil did not qualify for a War Medal!