Army Form B.217 - Foot Guards attestation

 

By my own calculations, Army Form B.217 must originally date to between June 1883 and February 1884. The image above is the second iteration of this form and dates to February 1884 when a print-run of 5,000 was ordered. 

 

The original intention was that this attestation form should be for Foot Guards, but over the years this was changed to serve the purpose of short service attestation for all those men enlisting for 3 years with the colours and 9 years with the reserve.

 

 

The image above shows the 34th version of Army Form B.217 which was printed in a run of 100,000 in May 1905. Note that in this case, the terms of service have been reversed so that Henry Bruty was signing up for nine years with the colours and three years on the reserve; far more practical than 3&9 for all concerned.

 

Army Form B.248 - Short Service 9&3 -1906

 

Army Form B.248 was a short service attestation form originally introduced in January 1906 in a print-run of 100,000. The terms of service were nine years with the colours and three on the reserve. This form is not commonly seen and when it does surface, often has the terms of service altered. Confusingly, an alternative Army Form B.248 for one year's service in the Special Reserve would subsequently be printed in August 1914.

Army Form B.120 - Regimental Conduct Sheet

 

Almost identical to Army Form B.121 which I covered in an earlier post, these forms are commonly seen in WO 363 and WO 364 and can be useful in the absence of other documentation in providing evidence of the man's date of attestation.

 

The image is Crown Copyright The National Archives.

Effects Form 118A

 

 

How much misery, despair and distress is recorded on these sad forms I wonder. It is what is says on the tin: details of personal effects to be returned to the next of kin. From a family historian's perspective, and in the absence of other surviving material, this document is useful because it lists the name and address of the next of kin. In some cases, details of personal effects may also be given, either noted on this form or recorded separately.  Note that this Effects Form 118A does not record sums of money owing, just personal effects.

 

The image below shows the items returned to my great-grandmother after her second eldest son, John Frederick Nixon, had been killed in action in October 1918:

 

The two discs are his identity discs which I have and which, when removed from his body on the battlefield, effectively denied him a marked grave. Instead, he's remembered on the Vis-en-Artois memorial. RIP, Jack.

Images used on this post are Crown Copyright The National Archives.

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.179a - Medical Report on a soldier...

This is a useful four-page document which not only gives crucial information about a soldier's age, regiment and enlistment date, but also gives us an insight into how Medical Boards arrived at their decisions on whether or not to make an award.

 

 

Page 1 (above) gives details of the soldier and a statement of the case dictated by the man but recorded by the Medical Officer in charge of the case.

 

 

The answers to these questions continued onto page 2.

 

 

Page 3 is where the Medical Board records its opinion.

 

 

This assessment carries over to page four. Arguably the most important part of this form is question 24 which assesses the level of disability.

 

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.

 



Army Form B.221 - Descriptive return, extension of service

 

Army Form B.221 is one of those forms which someone in authority at the MoD, presumably, deemed should be weeded from men's files. I suppose one can understand the logic as information about extension of service is noted in the soldier's statement of services. Nevertheless, it is nice to see these forms where they do survive.

 

 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.