War Office Form WO.83 - Discharge

This, somewhat tatty example of WO.83 is commonly seen in soldiers' files in WO 97 at The National Archives. The information at the top of this form shows that this particular version was part of a print-run of 25,000 forms generated in July 1878, and the man in question was being discharged on the 11th August 1880.

These documents are very useful as they give a summary of the man's service; presumably the only reason why generations of Whitehall clerks charged with 'weeding' ('destroying' would be a more apt term) soldiers' papers decided to spare this particular form.