fourteeneighteen

We research soldiers of the British Army of the First World War. That’s it. We’ll go back to the Boer War or even the Sudan if the WW1 soldier served then, but otherwise we do not cover earlier eras. Records of men who served after 1921 are not yet public, so we can’t cover those eras.

Archival search

This is our basic service. We will search the archives for all the factual evidence of the soldier’s career.

Standard searches (applies to all soldiers)

We will search the relevant archives and obtain copies, if they exist, of:
Army service record
Army pension record
Campaign medals record
Entry in National Roll of Honour
Entry in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour
Promotions and appointments (for officers)
Mentions in operational records (war diaries) (for officers)
Mentions in the “Times” (for known casualties)

Non-standard searches (applies in some circumstances)

If the man’s records or your own knowledge indicate that we should, we will search the relevant archives and obtain copies, if they exist, of:
Gallantry and other special awards
Records of death and burial
Records of prisoners of war
Mentions of death, wounding, capture or awards in operational records (war diaries)
Service record if discharged prior to 1913
Records of medals from campaigns prior to 1914
Long Service awards

We normally carry out the searches as a package. If you have already found or own some documents and you would like us to search for the rest, that is fine too. Just let us know when placing your order and we adjust our quoted fee accordingly.

Interpretation and report

This is where we add real value. We turn the facts found into real knowledge of the soldier’s career.

When he enlisted and the legal terms under which he was engaged, his postings, movements, disciplinary record. The battles and engagements that he took part in, and the places he went. In all too many cases, the circumstances of his wounding, capture or death – all in as much detail as possible.

This is all much easier for us if his service record exists, but in most cases even if it does not we can, by analysing his numbers and units (and drawing upon a great deal of expertise), work out quite a lot about his circumstances.

Your soldier’s story on the internet

We place a short ‘headline’ concerning each project on this website, with an invitation for anyone interested or with information to contact you, through us. But we can help you go much further: we could put the entire story, with photos if you have them, on a dedicated page on the Long, Long Trail website – or even build a small website for you. We’ll discuss this with you on completion of the research work.

Following in soldier’s footsteps

More and more of our clients do not want to stop once they know what happened to their soldier – they want to go and see for themselves. Walk the ground, see the views … visit the graves. Some information for would-be travellers is provided at the Long, Long Trail; many people are now taken on personally guided tours by Chris Baker. Contact us if this is of interest.

The three services

Finally, we will of course research men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines or Royal Air Force of the Great War period. The archives to be searched are different but our service is essentially the same.

Now go on to see how you benefit