WW2 era Service Records & Medal Cards available online

Morning Everyone,

Exciting news, I recently contacted the DBS Secretariat under the FOI act to ask about WW2 MICs. They informed me that all WW2 MICs held by the MoD have now been transferred to The National Archives.

I raised an enquiry with TNA to confirm this and the below was their response:

Thank you for contacting The National Archives of the United Kingdom.

Though we have recently received the Army Medal Cards from the Ministry of Defence, they are not currently on our catalogue, nor can they be viewed by the public as they are being prepared for release. It is our intention to release these cards as quickly as possible and we are in the process of exploring digitisation options too, which may speed up this process

I hope that you find this information helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Remote Enquiries Duty Officer
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

So it looks like we could at some point in the future be getting access to some additional service information

 

Gareth, do you mind if I quote your post over on the medal forum? I’ll not post your name obviously.

 

Sure no problem. If I hear anything else I'll pass that along too

 

Gareth, thanks for bringing these updates to our attention, it is much appreciated.

 

Cheers Gareth, and I second what Steve said.

 

Started a new topic in case the post by Gareth Smith publicising this new release of documents is lost in the now lengthy “MOD Transfer” topic.

MOD ALREADY TRANSFERRING WW2 SERVICE FILES TO UK NATIONAL ARCHIVES 2021

1.7m Second World War records to go online | Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

Looking forward to feedback from anyone who accesses the records in the coming days/weeks.

Steve

 

I see they're also available on Forces War Records.

My paternal granddad's medal index card is there. Nothing for my maternal granddad or my wife's granddad.

 

Hi,

I don’t know how many Medal Index Cards have been released but none of these regiments MIC have survived -


from an earlier post by bamboo43 -

“It is believed that the medal index cards do not survive for members of the following regiments:

• Royal Engineers
• Royal Army Veterinary Corps
• Roval Army Medical Corps
• Royal Army Ordnance Corps
• Auxiliary Territorial Service
• Scots Guards
• Leicestershire Regiment
• Royal Warwickshire Regiment
• Lincolnshire Regiment
• West Yorkshire Regiment
• East Yorkshire Regiment
• Green Howards
• Duke of Wellington's Regiment
• Sherwood Foresters
• York and Lancashire Regiment
• Royal Northumberland Fusiliers
• Royal Ulster Rifles
• Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers
• Royal Irish Fusiliers
• King's Own Regiment
• Lancashire Fusiliers
• East Lancashire Regiment
• Border Regiment
• South Lancashire Regiment
• Loyal Regiment
• Manchester Regiment
• Welch Regiment
• Cheshire Regiment
• Worcester Regiment
• South Staffordshire Regiment
• North Staffordshire Regiment
• South Wales Borderers
• Royal Welch Fusiliers
• Liverpool Regiment

I think only 150k service records have been released in this first tranche of service records placed online. Unless your relatives served in the Corps’ that have released records you’ll just have to wait a bit longer - some 9 million records to be digitised and released over the next 5 years apparently.

Steve

PS

FWR and Fold3 are part of Ancestry.

 

I have had a quick look for medal cards relating to several members of my family.
I found my Grandfather's medal card which annoyingly has been redacted, along with the cards relating to a number of Uncles. There are some medal cards missing including two where I have the Medals in their card boxes of issue!
I am also uncertain whether these medal cards include issues to the Home Guard, because I have been unable to discover any Defence Medals being issued to my (other) Grandfather and a Gt Gt Uncle who both served between 1940 and 1944.

 

Examples :-







Kyle

 

Hi Steve,

FWR is saying 1,711,988 records.

I did find a redacted one to a Royal Signals guy. Quite annoyingly, they'd gone a bit OTT with the redaction and covered up some of the medal info.

Shame about the Lincoln Regt...that's my wife's granddad but I have found the MIC to a Royal Engineer, I started researching 10 yrs ago.

That said, it's still a good research tool.

Cheers,
John.

 

Steve,

Thanks for bringing my post on the other thread over to this one. Keeps all tidy.

 

Hi,

I made a FOI request for my Dad’s MIC earlier this year and was told it couldn’t be found. He was not in a Regiment in the “missing MIC” list above so I’ll be interested to see if his card is part of this release.

However he did have a Border Regiment army service number from his pre Regular Army TA service so if the MIC were filed in accordance with “Regimental Number” - rather than unit served as shown on the MIC - that might explain why MOD couldn’t locate it earlier this year.

Steve

EDIT TO ADD 9PM 1/12/24

Just to record a public Thank You to Forum member Mr Jinks. Kyle was kind enough to send me a copy of my father’s MIC earlier this evening. Much appreciated.

I expect the document had left MOD when I applied there and was in the possession of Ancestry for digitisation.

 

I hope it turns up Steve, Best of luck

 

Not actually available on ancestry, thumbnails yes but originals no, as the link in post #1 states the originals are on the other two sites.

 

I wouldn`t take the list above as a 100% fact I`ve asked my friend to do a check on GREEN HOWARDS ,NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS and ROYAL ENGINEERS and there is results for all .


Kyle

 

Hi,

I think they will be releasing the bare minimum.

If you want to see what a service file may contain have a look at the Scots Guards service files on findmypast over the Remembrance Weekend free access period 8th to 11th November.

Some of the files contain 200+ pages (some duplication/triplication) and have a wealth of unexpurgated information (warts and all in some cases) that MOD don’t release - including medical and discipline information and post war correspondence. Some files cover the post war service period for men who served into the mid 1960’s.

It’s not just files for men who enlisted directly into Scots Guards (records are available for men who enlisted up to 1938) but there are some records for RA personnel who were compulsorily transferred to SG in 1944 having been conscripted earlier in the war. The pre SG file content is as voluminous as for whole time Scots Guards personnel.

The only caveat is that while SG files don't appear to have been culled post war I’m not aware whether files held by MOD have been subject to any weeding over the past 80 years.

Steve

 

Oh here we go again you get yourself all excited thinking something big and new is coming to Ancestry as your already paying 13 quid a month, and then just typical its on Fold 3 which is another subscription ahhhh !!!
Sorry I don't rant often but bleeding heck I am now.

 

Couldn’t agree more. Great business model isn’t it……

Apparently records are on Forces War Records (again part of Ancestry) as well but you’ll need to pay to join there as well.

Steve