Military Chat

Hello! I am wanting to find out what my dad did during the war in the Army. He has long passed and I have no-one to ask. I know that he lost his first wife and baby daughter in an air-raid at home whilst he was away in service. I have very little to go on apart from a photo of his regiment and a reference when he left the service. Can you help please? Thanks!

You can apply for his army service records

All the information you need in order to apply including downloading the relevant forms are on the link below

https://www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records

Roy

Thank you.

It will cost you £30.00, you need to provide proof of next of kin, but if your mother is still alive she can apply for free.

And there is a wait of around 6-10 months.

All army records are kept there and priority is given to current and recently left/deceased record requests.

I've filled in the forms, attached all needed documents and sent off the money (mum not alive either). The forms were easy enough to complete but took ages to find out where to send them to. I guess I will be having a long wait but it's something I've been wanting to do for years but it gets expensive. Got my mum's RAF info a few years ago with no problem at all. Thanks for your replies.
:-)

DazedConfused, You do NOT need to provide proof of next of kin to apply and you don't need their permission

Please read the info in the link i provided which as you will see is the offical Government web site

From members of GR who have recently applied for the records say they have recieved the records in weeks rather than months but there is no guarantee of the time span

Roy

I needed to send a copy of my passport (or other id) and a copy of dad's death cert. Glad to hear it might not be as long as first indicated.

His first wife and baby daughter might be listed on

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx

When I ordered my fathers army records I had to provide a copy of my birth and my fathers death certificate. Maybe the rules have changed since then.

Update to advise folk - I got a reply from my request for dad's army records yesterday to say that my request will take 3 to 6 months.
:-(

The MOD do have to priorities their work with serving and ex military personnel - at least you know that something will eventually turn up.

6 months isn't too bad - some members said they were told 9 months!

Beth

I hope you don't have to wait too long.
I think they give priority to living ex- servicemen and women.

My OH helped his father to fill in the forms last year and they arrived very quickly.

Gwyn

You may also find that you will need to see the regimental diaries for the unit he was in.

These will tell you where and when his unit was during the war and what they did, which you may not get in detail from his records.

These diaries are kept in the main at Kew, some are at the Imperial War Museum and some have been kept within the regimental archives.