A website fit for heroes: 14m first world war medals recorded online
Scans of record cards reveal exploits of 5.5m soldiers – and some famous
names
- Esther Addley
- The Guardian,
- Wednesday February 20 2008
On June 8 1917 the London Gazette carried a report about Captain Albert
Ball, a fighter pilot who had been awarded the Victoria Cross “for most
conspicuous and consistent bravery”. Between April 25 and May 6 Ball had
taken part in 26 combats, bringing down 11 hostile aircraft, on one
occasion fighting six singlehandedly.
“Several times his aeroplane was badly damaged, once so seriously that
but for the most delicate handling his machine would have collapsed, as
nearly all the control wires had been shot away. On returning with a
damaged machine he had always to be restrained from immediately going
out on another. In all, Captain Ball has destroyed 43 German aeroplanes
and one balloon, and has always displayed most exceptional courage,
determination and skill.”
It was not the first time he was mentioned in dispatches, having already
been awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order
three times. But the Victoria Cross would be his last medal; he was
killed in action on May 7.
The accounts of Ball’s medal-winning valour have been publicly available
since his death, but from today it will be much easier for historians
and amateur genealogists to access such details. For the first time the
full medal records of the 5.5 million British and Commonwealth soldiers
who fought in the first world war are being made available to view
online, comprising a total of 14m medals. Since almost every soldier who
fought was awarded at least a campaign medal, the record is
comprehensive. And because most of the first world war service records
were destroyed during the second, the medals record is the most
extensive archive of the conflict in existence.
“Quite simply, this is the most complete first world war collection of
what we are calling heroes’ exploits,” said Simon Harper, managing
director of the genealogy website Ancestry.co.uk, which has digitised
the archive. “There are other records already online which capture parts
of the service record, but unfortunately a lot of records no longer
survive, so to have a collection this complete is extremely important.”
Though other organisations, notably the National Archives at Kew, allow
users to order specific microfiched records for a fee, this is the first
time they can be browsed online.
The records take the form of colour scans of handwritten cards, on which
details of the medals awarded are recorded, along with soldiers’
addresses, rank, regiment and details of their service history. The
cards carry references to mentions in dispatches, where appropriate.
More than 50,000 records include details of covert operations.
Alongside the ordinary Tommies are a large number of medal-winners who
were or would go on to be well known – among them Oswald Mosley, AA
Milne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Ernest
Shackleton, newly returned from the South Pole in 1917, was considered
too old for the western front but sent to South America on a propaganda
mission, for which he was awarded the 1914 Star, the British War Medal
and the Victory Medal. The young Noel Coward was awarded the Silver War
Badge, having served briefly before being discharged for ill health.
Britain’s last surviving western front veteran, Harry Patch, is also
represented.
Though the spindly writing and military acronyms can appear difficult to
interpret, they are the missing keys to unlocking further intriguing
facts about one’s ancestors, according to Harper, who discovered the
existence of the archive after being approached by a private historical
society, the Western Front Association, which now holds the records at a
secret Salisbury location. Six people worked for six months using
hi-tech scanners and word recognition software to convert the documents
into a searchable archive.
The website, which operates commercially and requires users to pay a
subscription, also allows users to search first world war pension
records, held at the National Archives, and the remaining military
service records.
“There has been a fantastic growth recently in people’s interest in
family history, and military history is an important part of that,” said
Fergus Read, of the Imperial War Museum, which keeps regimental
histories and more personal documents which, he said, can also help
genealogists. “World war one is a conflict that seems to have a great
resonance for the British people. We’re good for fleshing out the story
but these records are essential for starting the story.”
- Ancestry.co.uk/military