WW2 Service Records Content

[Blue70]

I'm still waiting to receive a WW2 Service Record (6 months wait so far) has anyone on the forum received one of these records in the past? Can you tell me the categories of information included? In particular does it list next of kin, marital and children's details at the time of enlistment and during service?


Blue

[dickiesam]

Hi Blue,
I have just been told I could be waiting another 3 months for my own records from 1952-55 for which I applied over 6 months ago! I getting mine now to save whoever in my lot takes over the family tree [I hope someone does!] the trouble of getting them later. I have assumed I will still be here when they finally arrive.

If mine arrives before yours, I'll post the categories etc.

[Blue70]

Thanks DS. You must have applied late last year like me. I applied in November. I probably got the idea from one of your posts. I'm mostly interested in any information entered about his family members as he had a complicated domestic situation during the 1940s.


Blue

[Daisycakes]

Hi Blue...I have my late fathers WW2 papers and they did take 6 months to arrive ...however on my 2nd telephone call to them the papers where miraculusly found and I received them 2 days later.

As for whats included...17 sheets including a list of abbreviations which was very useful....he served in Burma so all his postings/including training/illness he had Pneumonia twice/casualty card(thank goodness it was not major he was patched up and sent back to the jungle)/all the naughty bits including absent without leave actually it included the date I was born ..still had his pay docked though. And shock horror there were a few fights more discipline I'm afraid ....but I can understand that times were very stressful and dangerous. My mum is on there as next of kin.

Having all the above about what my dad went through has helped me understand him more ..I just wish I had known while he was alive...but he never talked about his time in the war closed subject he used to say

Hope you find this helpful...Ann

[Blue70]

Thanks Ann. Does it list the children and their dates of birth and does it include children born after enlistment?


Blue

[Daisycakes]

There was only me and I am listed with my mother in 1942.... just taken another look at the papers and weirdly he enlisted in 1940 and there is no next of kin for that date ((he did have parents at the time))However in 1941 my mum was listed as next of kin

Ann

[Blue70]

Thanks Ann that's good as I'm interested in what it says about his marriage and children.


Blue

[Hilary]

I tell people it takes up to 12 months and then if they arrive beforehand it's a bonus!

Someone I know got their father's and the first thing they read was a court martial!!

On my father's it states 7 days leave, next entry is got married whilst on 7 days leave!
There is no mention of the date or place of the marriage but the original next of kin(his mother) has been crossed out and that of my mother written in.

[Hilary]

Just checked and I'm wrong under Particulars of marriage it gives my mother's name the fact she was a spinster and the date of the marriage and it just says Liverpool

In the Next of kin it first gives his father and that address, then that is crossed out and his mother and another address is given and then that's crossed out and his wife's address given.

[Blue70]

Thanks Hilary it should be interesting to see what updates are on his record.

Blue

[dickiesam]

Hi Blue,
I have just been told I could be waiting another 3 months for my own records from 1952-55 for which I applied over 6 months ago! I getting mine now to save whoever in my lot takes over the family tree [I hope someone does!] the trouble of getting them later. I have assumed I will still be here when they finally arrive.

If mine arrives before yours, I'll post the categories etc.

Hi Blue,
My own Army papers have just arrived after a 6 month wait. To be fair I was kept informed of progress, or lack of it, due to the workload.
The papers are a complete record from a copy of my Attestation to my several postings to final discharge to the Reserve in 1955. But no mention of the two times I was up before the CO on a charge under 'conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline'. I got my knuckles rapped each time but kept hold of my stripes! Has a note of my marriage 18 months after leaving the Colours.

[Blue70]

Thanks DS. Hopefully it shouldn't be too long now.

Blue

[Blue70]

My Nan's husband's record arrived yesterday it took about 11 months. He joined up in 1940 on my Nan's birthday! He got most of the family dates wrong including the date of his marriage. The next of kin is my Nan and the address is hers. No changes to the family information after 1941.

He was in the Royal Artillery in 1940/41 then was in the Royal Engineers during 1941-46. He appears to have been based in Scotland for most of the war before going to France/Belgium in 1944/45. He was a stevedore in the Port Operating Company.

When he left the army in 1946 he gave a different address to my Nan's so that shows that their separation was final by then. He appears to have been a decent man from his record you wonder about the character of people who disappear from the family and are not discussed.

Blue

[dickiesam]

He appears to have been a decent man from his record you wonder about the character of people who disappear from the family and are not discussed.

Thanks for the update Blue. Re the quote.. I've a couple of people who left a family and were rarely, if ever, talked about. I remember being at a funeral of an aunt as a young lad and there were hushed whispers going on about her 'missing' husband who was from my family. All the whisperers have long since passed so I'll never know what happened to him and why.

[MaryA]

Thanks for bringing this up to date Blue, it also gives a guideline to others who have applied just how long the wait will be.