Soldiers' Effects
You may have noticed that Ancestry has released, in conjunction with the National Army Museum, soldiers' effects records.
So this week's article is about them.
It includes soldiers that died between 1901 and 1929, so not just World War One. However, the majority are WW1 casualties. It also contains a few of the soldiers listed as 'insane'. The records contain: the name of the soldier, next of kin, including relationship, when they died (and sometimes where), the amount paid to the next of kin (£,s,d) and often a war gratuity. They can be searched here.
At the weekend I took some time out to look at these records and found my relatives who died during the war on there.
An example of this is Herbert Shire of the Somerset Light Infantry who enlisted in November 1914 but didn't go in to action until the 6 October 1915 before dying for his country, in action at The Battle of Albert, on the 1 July 1916 aged 36.
Here is his effects record:
So this week's article is about them.
It includes soldiers that died between 1901 and 1929, so not just World War One. However, the majority are WW1 casualties. It also contains a few of the soldiers listed as 'insane'. The records contain: the name of the soldier, next of kin, including relationship, when they died (and sometimes where), the amount paid to the next of kin (£,s,d) and often a war gratuity. They can be searched here.
At the weekend I took some time out to look at these records and found my relatives who died during the war on there.
An example of this is Herbert Shire of the Somerset Light Infantry who enlisted in November 1914 but didn't go in to action until the 6 October 1915 before dying for his country, in action at The Battle of Albert, on the 1 July 1916 aged 36.
Here is his effects record:
From it I can tell his wife, Minnie, was given £3,1s,9d on the 2 November 1916 and a war gratuity of £7 on the 16 September 1919.
So that is this weeks article, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll be back next week. If you found this article interesting why not take a minute to comment or email me at [email protected]
Published: 12 February 2015
So that is this weeks article, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you'll be back next week. If you found this article interesting why not take a minute to comment or email me at [email protected]
Published: 12 February 2015
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
*Note - No copyright infringement was intended. If there is a breach in copyright contact me through the 'Contact' section so it can be removed. All photos are Copyright © 2015 Harry Clarke. All Rights Reserved. The photo on the 'Home' page for this article is courtesy of Australian War Memorial. The photo of Herbert Shire's Soldiers' Effects record is courtesy of Ancestry.