War Office Form WO.1143

This form would later become the ubiquitous Army Form B.178 and would go through many design iterations. A prime example of its usefulness to the military historian can be seen in the image below which lists all the stations where this particular soldier was examined or received treatment.

The front of this form also gives a lot of useful and interesting personal detail about the man, detail that would not make its way onto Army Form B.178. This particular form was begun in 1866 and as can be seen from the reverse, the man re-engaged in 1878.

Images are Crown Copyright, The National Archives.

Army Form B.50 - Soldiers' Small Book

Army Form B.50 was the Soldiers' Small Book which contained his personal details as well as notes and observations designed to be helpful to the soldier such as points to be observed on outposts, how to prevent sore feet, and instructions for cleaning the rifle and carbine. Every soldier was issued with one - and so too were airmen, as in the image above,at that point in its evolution when the Royal Flying Corps was just another army corps.

I have a couple of these in my collection, including the one my great grandfather kept when he joined the Army Service Corps in November 1915. In my experience it is rare to find these books completely filled in; often as not they appear to be largely blank, but they are nice objects to own and can be useful as there is a section which deals with the soldier's description on attestation as well as details of his next of kin.

As these books were issued to the soldier it it is rare to find them in service records - indeed, I have never seen one - but they do turn up at trade fairs and on well-known internet auction houses and they can be useful starting points for research projects.

Army Form B.271A - Attestation

This attestation form which, so it says at the top, came into effect from September 1921, marks quite a departure from those attestation forms used prior to this date. For a start, this is a two-page document rather than a three or four-page form, and of these two pages, the first page is almost entirely given over to the conditions; the "contract" of enlistment between the man and the "Crown".

Page two asks for some new information but there is also a lot missing. The nationality of the recruit's parents is requested, as is the recruit's date of birth and number of dependent children. Missing from this form though are next of kin details, marriage details, children's birth details and a physical description on enlistment.

Also, noticably missing from this 14-year-old's paper is his regimental number which would normally have been applied when he presented himself at the regimental depot. It makes me wonder whether this lad did actually see the attestation through.

My grateful thanks to Graham Thompson for sending this form to me. This particular issue dates to June 1927 and was obviously still in use when Frederick Gray signed up in April 1928.

W.3428 - Accidental or self-inflicted injuries

 

I've not seen too many of these forms for reporting accidental or self-inflicted injuries, and this print run dates to July 1918 and a modest print-run of just 6,000. This particular man suffered a fractured forearm when he was thrown from a mule. Apart from the mule, there were no witnesses.

 

The image is crown copyright The National Archives.

Army Form B.178 - Medical History

This commonly seen Army Form started life as War Office Form 1143. The example above and below is the third iteration of this particular document and dates to April 1881 and a print run of 50,000. It was a simple two-sided form at this stage of its evolution and in the absence of other papers - and particularly if the soldier had been in and out of hospital - can be hugely useful in pinpointing a man's locations. The soldier below was stationed at Leeds, Ballicollig, Curragh and Newbridge and a check against his regiment's movements and locations would almost certainly tie in with where he was.

The later version of this form, below, is the version that is more commonly seen in files of the First World War. Anybody who has looked at more than a handful of First World War service records will be very familiar with this form and will appreciate how useful it can be.

For me, on occasions, this form has been a life-saver, in particular the section towards the bottom of the front page which gives details of when the man attested/enlisted and then details of his regiment, number and subsequent transfers. Some forms I have come across also give the dates of transfer but the majority do not.

These forms survive in both WO 363 and WO 364 although in my experience they're more commonly found in the pension files in WO 364.

Pages two and three (above and below) are used to record details of admission to hospital or to the sick list in the case of warrant officers treated in quarters.

The final page of this four page document can give a good summary of medical treatment. In this case we see that the seasonally named Joseph Christmas was classified B1 in June 1916 when he was diagnosed with flat feet and requiring dental treatment. By the time he was discharged in September 1918 he was classified as B2 and had been seen by at least three Travelling Medical Boards (TMB).

All document images reproduced on this post are Crown Copyright, The National Archives. Service and Pension records can be searched and downloaded from  Findmypast. 

Army Form E.501 - Territorial Force attestation

 

Introduced in 1908, Army Form E.501 was to be used for men who were not serving members of the Volunteer Force or Imperial Yeomanry; men who wished to serve with the newly formed Territorial Force for a period of four years. Unlike later incarnations, the pre-war E.501 form is packed with useful questions for today's military historian: Name, place of birth, residence, employment details, physical characteristics and next of kin name and address are all included.

 

 

Page 3 has sections for preliminary training and annual training and so we can see in Laxton's Boyall's case (above) that he attended training on four consecutive years between 1909 and 1912 inclusive and also where that training took place.

 

Here's a later version of this same form from 1914:

 

 

 

All document images reproduced on this post are Crown Copyright, The National Archives. Service and Pension records can be searched and downloaded from Ancestry and Findmypast. Both companies offer FREE 14-day trials.

Unlimited Service - 1846

John Armstead enlisted with the 56th Regiment of Foot at Bury in Lancashire on the 2nd July 1846 at eleven o'clock in the morning.  He received a bounty of four pounds. The 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot was surely not a natural choice for a Lancastrian.

 

 

John was just under five feet, six and a half inches tall and apparently in good health.

He served over 14 years in the army.  (Discharge papers, not shown here, reveal that he served four years and seven months in Gibraltar, three years and 10 months in Bermuda, one year in the Crimea, and two years and ten months in the east Indies). He was discharged at Calcutta on the 1st October 1860 with two good conduct badges, the Crimean Medal with "Sebastopol" clasp, and the Turkish Crimea medal.

 

 

John Armstead's record survives in the very wonderful WO 131 series (soldiers awarded deferred pensions) at the National Archives which has just been published by Findmypast.  Images shown here are Crown Copyright.

 



Recruiting sergeants

Here are some nice images of recruiting sergeants in the nineteenth century. I only discovered recently, that three twisted ribbons worn on the sergeant's hat or cap denotes the appointment as a recruiting sergeant. The image above is taken from the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment website and shows a recruiting sergeant circa 1810.

This detail above is taken from a painting by John Mulcaster Carrick and dates to 1862.

This painting, artist unknown, probably dates to later than the Carrick painting and again, the sergeant's ribbons are clearly visible.

Finally, the photograph above was published by Coldstream on the Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum in 2010 and depicts a recruiting sergeant from the Coldstream Guards and possibly the civilian recruiting agent standing by his side.

Military Service and Pension records can be searched and downloaded from Ancestry and Findmypast. Both companies offer FREE 14-day trials.

Army Form B.265

Army Form B.265 was introduced in October 1880 with an initial print-run of 25,000 copies.  It was a short service attestation form, the recruit being asked:

"Are you willing to serve for the term of twelve Years, provided her majesty should so long require your services, the first six years in army service, and the six remaining years in the 1st Class of the Reserve?"

William Barrow answered "Yes" to this question when he joined the Rifle Brigade on the 10th May 1881 although had he but known it, the form he was signing up on had already been superceded by a second version which was published in a short print run of 2000 in March 1881.  In fact, there would be many versions of this attestation form over the coming years and B.265 was an enduring attestation form which would be used  - in various iterations - certainly into the First World War.

The version above is the 22nd iteration of Army Form B.65 amd dates to March 1889 and a print run of 120,000.

All document images reproduced on this post are Crown Copyright, The National Archives. Pension records can be searched and downloaded from Findmypast which offers a FREE 14-day trial.