War Office: Other Ranks and Nurses: Service Records, Second World War

WO 423

[1939-1963]

This series consists of service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks (but not officers) who primarily served in infantry regiments of the British Army during the Second World War and who were discharged from the armed forces before the end of 1963. It also contains the records of some individuals who served in the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Nurses, as well as some records relating to service prior to the Second World War. The types of documents that are most commonly found within the service records comprising this series are:

- Attestation forms, which are the documents signed by the new recruit, or created upon transfer between units;

- Statement of service, which outline an individual's postings whilst in service;

- Discharge forms, which were issued when a soldier left the regiment;

- A variety of supporting correspondence.

There may be gaps in the sequence of pieces while we continue to catalogue this accession

Some pieces appear to have been organised according to surname or date of birth, however for large parts of this series there is no discernible order to the pieces

For First World War soldiers documents WO 364

For soldiers service records relating to the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers WO 420

For soldiers service records relating to selected smaller corps during the Second World War period WO 421

For Womens Services in East Africa, Nurses and Other Ranks WO 427

For soldiers' service records pre-1914. WO 97

For Infantry Over Age Other Ranks WO 422

Public Record(s)

English

file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

From 2020, Ministry of Defence

Topics

Army

Nursing

Conflict

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns

This series is accruing

This collection of records primarily includes those who served in infantry and other regiments, and some support services of the British Army, during and in some cases prior to the Second World War.

In many cases, records were added to after 1945, as individuals remained in the Army Reserve and liable for recall to the armed forces up until 1959 or until they reached the age of 45. This series contains those who were discharged before the end of National Service in 1963. The records were also used for pension purposes after 1945.