British Army Service Records 1760-1915
Search for your ancestors' service records in the following record collections. You can also search these records separately to narrow down your search:
Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913
Militia Service Records 1806-1915
What are the British Army Service Records?
These records comprise Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 and Militia Service Records 1806-1915.
Many of your ancestors will have had a period of time in the army and these records provide rich detail about them. The Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records provide information on men pensioned out of the British Army 1760-1915. The connection with ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ is that the pensions were administered through The Royal Hospital at Chelsea. The great majority of pensioned soldiers were out-pensioners and did not reside at the Hospital itself.
The Militia was a voluntary county-based part-time force for home defence. It ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but was revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales. All pre-20th century males were obliged to serve in the militia so you are likely to find information about your ancestors here. There are also details about the professions these men worked in as, for most of the time, they would be engaged in a regular job.
You may come across reference to attestation papers. This refers to the official papers written for a soldier upon joining.
These records are brought to you online in association with The National Archives (TNA). The TNA record series numbers are ‘WO96’ and ‘WO97’: WO simply indicates that the records were created by the War Office, the precursor of today’s Ministry of Defence.
Why are these records useful to the family historian?
These records provide rich detail and colour to your ancestors’ lives at a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. There is often information about physical appearance, profession (in the case of the Militia records) and achievements during service.
Whereas many other military records provide information about officer class soldiers, these records include papers from ordinary soldiers of other ranks. This makes it more likely that you will be able to find details about your ancestors.
What exactly will I be able to find out?
The Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records provide the soldier’s name, place of birth, regiment(s), year of discharge and dates of service within the British Army.
Timeline and Historical context
Here are some of the major conflicts that are covered by the same period as the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records which may help you to find your ancestors.
1760-1915
1775 – American War of Independence
1793-1802 – British involvement in French Revolution
1795 – British capture of Ceylon
1798 – Irish Rebellion
1803-1815 – Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
1854-1856 – The Crimean War
1857-1859 – Indian Mutiny
1880-1881 – The First Anglo-Boer War (also known as the "Transvaal War")
1899-1902 – The Second Anglo-Boer War
Search for your ancestors' service records in the following record collections. You can also search these records separately to narrow down your search:
Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913
Militia Service Records 1806-1915
What are the British Army Service Records?
These records comprise Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 and Militia Service Records 1806-1915.
Many of your ancestors will have had a period of time in the army and these records provide rich detail about them. The Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records provide information on men pensioned out of the British Army 1760-1915. The connection with ‘Chelsea Pensioners’ is that the pensions were administered through The Royal Hospital at Chelsea. The great majority of pensioned soldiers were out-pensioners and did not reside at the Hospital itself.
The Militia was a voluntary county-based part-time force for home defence. It ceased to be summoned after the Civil War but was revived in 1757, when the Militia Act established militia regiments in all counties of England and Wales. All pre-20th century males were obliged to serve in the militia so you are likely to find information about your ancestors here. There are also details about the professions these men worked in as, for most of the time, they would be engaged in a regular job.
You may come across reference to attestation papers. This refers to the official papers written for a soldier upon joining.
These records are brought to you online in association with The National Archives (TNA). The TNA record series numbers are ‘WO96’ and ‘WO97’: WO simply indicates that the records were created by the War Office, the precursor of today’s Ministry of Defence.
Why are these records useful to the family historian?
These records provide rich detail and colour to your ancestors’ lives at a level that is difficult to find elsewhere. There is often information about physical appearance, profession (in the case of the Militia records) and achievements during service.
Whereas many other military records provide information about officer class soldiers, these records include papers from ordinary soldiers of other ranks. This makes it more likely that you will be able to find details about your ancestors.
What exactly will I be able to find out?
The Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records provide the soldier’s name, place of birth, regiment(s), year of discharge and dates of service within the British Army.
Timeline and Historical context
Here are some of the major conflicts that are covered by the same period as the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records which may help you to find your ancestors.
1760-1915
1775 – American War of Independence
1793-1802 – British involvement in French Revolution
1795 – British capture of Ceylon
1798 – Irish Rebellion
1803-1815 – Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
1854-1856 – The Crimean War
1857-1859 – Indian Mutiny
1880-1881 – The First Anglo-Boer War (also known as the "Transvaal War")
1899-1902 – The Second Anglo-Boer War
Army Service Records Search tips
Search parameters
Soldiers’ papers may include attestation and/or discharge forms. The attestation form was completed when the soldier joined the regiment; the discharge form when he left. The search covers all available papers for each soldier but the records may only offer attestation information. This is because discharge papers exist for only 7% of the records.
Country and county
You will need to select the country before options appear in the county dropdown. Only Australia of the overseas documents has any options in the county field.
Town and parish
These are freeform fields and should only be used if you are certain how they would have been recorded. Even in seemingly obvious place names, there are variations in how they are recorded and you’re more likely to get useful results by using a wildcard search.
Soldier number
If you know the solider number, you can search by this on its own.
Regiment
This is a useful search if you are interested in finding out about a particular regiment rather than when searching for individuals and you can search by regiment alone. A soldier’s regiment may well have changed through the duration of his service but the records only capture that which was listed at join-up. Also, there is often not a match between the wording on the transcription compared to a full or official title, so Battalion of the 12th Foot may only be listed as ‘12th’ in the records. The filter can be a useful aid to finding those with a particularly common surname, however.
Less is more
There are no compulsory fields within the search but you should include at least 3 characters within a forename or surname as a minimum. For a wider range of search fields, try the advanced search tab. Completing more fields will narrow down your results, but we suggest that you begin your search by using only a small amount of information. This will allow for potential mis-transcriptions, and if you get too many results, you can always add more detail to condense them.
Include variants
Even if you are sure you know the correct spelling of a name, it may not be recorded exactly as you’d expect. The spelling of a surname can change as it is passed down through the generations and your ancestor may have used a different first name in everyday life to the one used for official documents.
If you tick the ‘include variants’ tickbox, alternative spellings of the name you’ve entered will be included in the results. For example, if you enter Stephen you will also get matches for ‘Steven’; ‘Smyth’ will appear alongside ‘Smythe’ and ‘Smith’.
Wildcards
If you are unsure of how a name was spelt or if you can’t find it with the usual spelling, the wildcard feature lets you broaden your search.
You can create a wildcard search by including a * in the search. It can be used within all alphabetical search fields, except those with drop-down menus.
For example, if you search for William Lancaster but enter ‘*caster’ in the last name field, your results will include names such as Doncaster and Hilcaster as well as Lancaster. So if the initial part of William Lancaster’s last name has been wrongly transcribed, the results may still lead you to the right entry.
The initial and/or last letters of names are sometimes mis-transcribed. You can use two wildcards in a search field to allow for these types of transcription error. For example, you could enter *ollin* if you were having difficulty finding a Rollind or a Collins.