I have submitted a FOIA request to the National Archive and it says: "Please note that military service documents are of a purely administrative nature and do not contain detailed information regarding the exact locations and movements of individual service personnel or units." Does anyone have any experience with these requests and as they don't contain movement of units or locations, where should I look for that information? The MOD have already told me they moved my grandfather's ROS to the TNA so my guess is they have nothing else on him. Thanks
Service records are important because they show what units a person served with and when, once these are to hand the next step would be the war diaries or unit histories to complete the picture. Service records generally do not show precise locations but may give theatres, embarkation and disembarkation dates, they could also mention hospitals, leave dates etc.
Neither TNA or MoD would carry out a search of a Record of Service for an entry coupled to a location or movement. Access is given to the entire record for the requester. Did you request access to the record or did you request a search for a particular event by means of the FoI? Ross
Thanks for the reply. I did MOD request for my grandfather's record of service. He is deceased and I provided the death cert. They said they no longer hold the ROS and to go via TNA
That's a pretty standard reply to be honest. The ROS should contain the units your grandfather served with. Once you have them, as Tony56 says, the respective War diaries will help complete his movement story.
That is the best route - now you need to apply on the TNA FoI Form to request access. You need to include his proof of death to the TNA as MoD will not have passed this over, but if MoD gave you a reference no for the TNA include this in the TNA application. Some applicants fall foul of the TNA requirements leading to a refusal to open the record. On this site there are many threads where help is requested and the whole service record is posted as attachment. Looking at these will give you an idea of what the service record looks like and how to use to lead to other info sources. Ross
All done thank you. I've provided the death certificate to TNA aswell as the MOD ref number they provided for his ROS. I will take a look around this forum for some records to see what sort of stuff they include. In your experience do you know roughly how big the records would be for a Chindit in Burma? I appreciate every soldier is different so the records will vary in size drastically. I just want a rough idea of how many pages to expect and what sort of record. Really excited now, though I know I may have a year plus to wait..
These are my dad's records. Ernest Illingworth, Army Records | WW2Talk Another chaps records I received. Sgt. Harry Salt, MID. 1st Recce | WW2Talk Lesley
I received a Chindit's RoS in March 2024, had a staggering 75 pages, although the soldier initially joined up in 1930. I also received a post WW2 RAF record to a national serviceman, consisted of 2 pages. I would like to think your grandfather's would be a bit more than 2 pages.
Thank you, I hope so. I have received a reply from the MOD at the National Archives: " Please note, the information stored on our database is limited, and sometimes contains inaccuracies such as spelling mistakes and typographical errors. This means that we are unable to guarantee that the record we have identified is the one you wish to see. However, it is the closest match that we have been able to find using the information which you gave us. This record is currently closed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will need to be sensitivity reviewed before we can determine whether it is possible to open it to the public." Is it quite common in your experience for these WW2 records to still be closed and have you ever had any push back due to potential operational sensitivities? thanks
Hi, Once again, that's the standard reply from TNA. Personally, I've never had any push back from them, regarding the release of records. However, I've certainly received records that have been redacted, it's nearly always medical or discipline entries that get redacted. Best of luck with your continued research.
Not so much operational sensitivities but sometimes they refuse to provide the info because it has details of medical issues etc. They have created a rod for their own back by using the FOI as the route for opening these files; they redact stuff which is available on FindMyPast or Ancestry and was given to them by the National Archives!!! Then they complain because they are doing so much redaction it is sucking resource!!
Yes this is what they told me about the medical records. They said words to the effect that it would be a breach of my late father's confidence until 25 (+1) years after his death in 2027.
