War Office: Department of the Secretary, C5 Statistics Branch: Statistical Abstracts

WO 394

1916-1920

This series consists of a bound set of abstracts produced by the War Office's C5 Statistics Branch.

In addition to material relating to personnel, these monthly statistical abstracts include information on various aspects of the First World War. In particular, information is included on the following: distribution of formations; strengths at home and abroad; casualties (including prisoners of war); recruitment; the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force; munitions; embarkations and shipments; war expenditure; a chronology of the war; and quartering, allowances, discipline, honours and awards, etc.

The later volumes include additional subjects which were covered as the war went on; e.g. air raids, demobilization and military railways. The statistical information is not limited to the British Army; there is material concerning commonwealth troops and other belligerents.

The final summary (which is unbound) contains everything of more than transient interest that had appeared in previous issues, although earlier volumes are useful in that they give statistical information up to a certain date.

Public Record(s)

English

20 volume(s)

Topics

Internment

Railways

Army

Air Force

Conflict

Weapons

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns

Before the First World War, responsibility for the preparation of general returns and statistics relating to the army (including the General Annual Report on the British Army) lay with C.2b Branch of the War Office, although a branch of the Adjutant-General's Department compiled monthly statistics on manpower strengths.

C.2's statistical duties were suspended for the duration of the war, and in October 1916 C.5 was created specifically for the compilation of statistical abstracts, known as Abstracts of Information Regarding the Armies at Home and Abroad.

With the resumption in 1920 of the General Annual Report, the General Monthly Return of the Regimental Strength of the British Army and the Annual Return of the Territorial Force, the continuance of the statistical abstracts was considered unnecessary and C.5 was disbanded.

The General Annual Reports were presented as command papers to Parliament, and those for 1914 to 1919 were incorporated into the 1920 publication.