Hi all. I am currently in the process of assisting / encouraging my wife to obtain her late father's service record as each time we holiday in Normandy she becomes more and more curious about her father's exploits whenever we visit anywhere his regiment passed through or were involved. As seems often the case he never spoke in detail of his service, giving only limited details of where he was, but she also admits she was too young to be as curious as she now wishes she was before he passed away back in 1985. Basically the only information she has is his name, date of birth, that he served in the King's Own Scottish Borderers and ended up in Germany at the end of the war. She also remembers asking him if he had to wear a kilt, to which he replied his regiment wore tartan trousers rather than kilts. She doesn't have any photos or documentation to go on or any confirmation of a service number. She has been trying all day without success to get through to the Army Personnel Centre's phone line but she will continue trying. In the meantime, could anybody possibly verify whether the APC staff will confirm existence of his army record before she goes ahead and applies for it as there is no sign of it on the War Records database but then again there is no sign of my dad on there who I know served in the Suez crisis. Any advice in smoothing out / speeding up the process would also be greatly appreciated. Many thanks in advance. Jason.
If it's the website Forces War Records you have been using you will not be able to access service records through them. Just get the paperwork filled out and post to Glasgow as soon as you can. I doubt whether they will confirm the existence of the record over the phone as I believe the hard copies aren't held in Glasgow. If you have subscribed to the above site I'd email them before your subscription expires and make it very clear you do not wish to renew or instruct your bank not to allow any more deductions. They stung me for a renewal even though I had ticked the box requesting non renewal and quite frankly I found nothing of any interest there that wasn't already available elsewhere on the internet. If you post the details of your wife's father or indeed your own father, you might be amazed by what can be found by members here even before you receive the records. All the best - Maria
Hi Maria is right. Apply here - https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records Name and date of birth should be enough, you may not need his service number. Once you get his service record, then you can get regiment war diaries and find out where he went in more detail. I did and it was worth it. regards Robert
Hi Jason, What number(s) have you been ringing ? I found those on the paperwork with my dad's service record constantly engaged but JPAC, at a loss to explain why I was getting this even well outside normal working hours, gave me one that worked fine (Army Personnel Centre Disclosures Helpdesk on 0345 600 9663 + menu options 3 & 1 to talk to MailPoint555). Working hours are also fairly minimal @ 10-12 Mon-Fri mornings & 2-4 Mon-Thu afternoons. Given how little you know, if there's any possibility he felt obliged to be economical with the truth, I'd recommend you follow your instinct to ring and have them run a quick check. Here's a recent thread you may find instructive - Returned application. - Service Records - WW2 Talk. HTH, Steve PS: 7-7 Mon-Fri with 0800 phone # - 3rd party contact details for JPAC Enquiry Centre
Thanks for the help and tips folks. The number she was trying was 0141 224 3303 and finally on the third day of trying the wife got through to Army Personnel Centre. They asked her name and address plus her dad's name and date of birth and have sent forms out which should hopefully arrive shortly. We could be on the way to filling in a lot of blanks in her knowledge of her dad's past life. Hopefully, coupled with the relevant war diary entries she will find information that can make her even more proud of her father than she already is.
