The following is a plea from Shirley Williams of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon.
We at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon are starting the mammoth task of looking for photos of individual soldiers from the RWF who were killed in the Great War. We are trying to put each man’s name on display on a screen on the centenary of his death and would dearly love to be able to add a photograph of each man to go with his name. It is a huge undertaking as there were over 10,400 men from the RWF that were killed. But even if we only get a fraction of the photographs we believe it is worth doing. Many of the RWF were from all over so we are asking please could you help? You can help us by circulating our plea to anybody who is interested. Many families have photographs tucked away so this might prompt them to seek them out. We accept scans or copies and any that appeared in newspapers, which often carried obituaries including photographs. We need as much information as possible to go with the photo to make sure we fit the right photo to the right man – but sometimes a name and date of death might be all we need. Email us on [email protected] for more details or to send us a photo. You can also follow our progress on Twitter, Pinterest, Flickr and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Royal-Welch-Fusiliers-Museum/146060182083938
Photos of the Royal Welch Fusiliers are now sought
In this year that commemorates the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, The National Archives has released another set of records from The Great War. The 'Appeals against First World War conscription' records have now gone online.
The records are the case files of over 8,000 men who were appealing against conscription into the army between 1916 to 1918. The men applied to local military tribunals for exemption and if they were unsuccessful could then appeal to the county appeal tribunal. This new set of records cover the Middlesex Appeal Tribunal only and are classed in file series MH47. More can be found at The National Archives website.
New records released by The National Archives- 'Conscription appeals'
As today, the 22 January, marks the date of the famous battles of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift in the Zulu War, a gravestone has been discovered in a Liverpool cemetery of a veteran who fought in the famous rearguard action at Rorke's Drift.
In Ford Cemetry, Litherland, there is a distinctive Celtic cross monument dedicated to Thomas Burke, who died in 1925, aged 64. However, there is no mention of his military career in the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War, in South Africa.
Private Thomas Burke served in B Company, 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot, tasked with defending the mission station of Rorke's Drift. For this he was recipient of the South Africa Medal, with 1877-8-9 Clasp.
He also served in the Far East and was awarded the India General Service Medal with Burma 1885-87 Clasp. He reached the rank of sergeant and was discharged from the Army in 1897. There's more details on the discovery of this soldier who fought in one of the most iconic battles of Victorian times on the Liverpool Echo website.
TheGenealogist also has many of the British soldiers who fought in the Anglo-Zulu War in their Army Lists available online .
The gravestone of Private Thomas Burke has been found in a Liverpool cemetery
This Thursday, the 23rd January, sees a free talk from The National Archives entitled 'Your Country Needs You' looking at the recruitment posters of World War One, including the famous Lord Kitchener 'finger pointing poster'. The talk asks if this was the most successful recruitment poster or if there were other more effective recruitment messages and posters that worked to encourage thousands of Britons to join up.
This talk draws upon official records from The National Archives to provide alternative and surprising stories. The talk is being given by James Taylor, former curator of the National Maritime Museum who also writes and lectures on maritime and military art and design.
There's more information available from The National Archives website.
Talk on World War One recruitment posters and their effectiveness at The National Archives
The National Archives have appealed for volunteers to help tag First World War unit diaries as part of their new 'Operation War Diary' outsourcing partnership with the Imperial War Museum. Volunteers are needed to record people, places and activities from the diaries as part of this major project.
There are 1.5 million pages of war diaries from the British Army on the Western Front during WW1 which had been stored away in the archives. Volunteer help is needed to now reveal the stories of the men who fought in the Great War. If you have any spare time to assist you can sign up to the project here.
The end result should be a great resource for researchers and family historians alike.
WW1 war diaries offer us a window into life in the Great War
According to the latest news from The National Archives website, a collection of Second World War RAF casualty records has now been released to view.
The records were produced by the Air Ministry's casualty branch following the loss of an aircraft or personnel. They include accident reports and correspondence with next of kin.
Known as the AIR 81 series, the first tranche contains 316 packs dating from the beginning of the war in September 1939 to May 1940. However, many of the files contain correspondence which runs into the 1950s and even the 1960s.
This first collection of records does include some notable RAF raids from the early years of World War 2, such as the raid on the Albert Canal Bridges in Belgium in May 1940 when five aircraft from RAF No 12 Squadron were lost and the first Victoria Crosses of the war were awarded.
There's more details at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/903.htm
New RAF casualty records released from the start of World War Two.
TheGenealogist has added the unique Great War record sets of The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, one of the four London based Inns of Court for the law profession.
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple is one of the four London based Inns of Court for the law profession and has been a separate legal society since 1388. Offering accommodation to practitioners of the law and their students with facilities for education and dining, the organisation proudly produced commemorative records of their members between 1914 to 1918. The information includes their regiment, rank and if they were injured, killed or missing in action.The Inner Temple list includes the record of future prime minister, Clement Attlee who was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1906. He served as a Lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment and was the penultimate man to be evacuated from Gallipoli. He was later seriously wounded in Mesopotamia before serving in France. His war service helped shape him into a distinguished prime minister who presided over a radical, reforming government.Available to view in the ‘Roll of Honour’ section of the Military Records on TheGenealogist, the records are taken from the ‘Roll of Enlistment’ publication produced by The Honourable Society of The Inner Temple.
Clement Attlee mentioned in the new Inner Temple war records
TheGenealogist has just released a new set of data records from The Institute of Electrical Engineers (The IEE) war memorial records from the First World War.
The IEE war records are a tribute to members of their organisation who died in the Great War. A number of promising engineers lost their lives and the records give an in-depth biography into the background, education, engineering career and war service, including details on how they sadly died. Many of the records come with a picture of the member commemorated.
Taken from the book 'The Roll of Honour of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 1914-1919', the records contain extensive biographies, numerous portraits and a map of North West Europe showing the main battlefields.
The records are available to view in the ‘Roll of Honour’ section of the Military Records on TheGenealogist. For more information visit http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/news.php#latest
In a busy week for TheGenealogist , there's another set of records now available online for Diamond subscribers. Over 18,000 new records are now accessible online from the ‘National Union of Teachers’ War Records from 1914 to 1919. These records include a list of teachers who joined the forces, those who received honours, and also those who were sadly killed, plus other information relating to the National Union of Teachers during the war.
Covering all N.U.T. members who served in the war and also discussing issues of the time, there's details on pensions, salary levels of teachers who joined the army and fund raising for relief in Europe.
The records are a comprehensive list of members of the National Union of Teachers who served in the Great War. The teaching profession and its members responded to the great nationwide pressure to ‘do their bit’, with most male teachers of service age answering the call to arms.
The records provide an interesting insight into how a specific profession and its union coped with the events of The Great War. Taken from the National Union of Teachers War Records 1914 to 1919 publication, the records can be found in the War Service Lists in the Military Records section on TheGenealogist. There's more details available at http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/news.php#latest
Teacher Jack Harrison was rewarded for outstanding bravery in World War One
Latest news from TheGenealogist is the release of specialist records dedicated to the Royal Navy actions at The Battle of Jutland in World War One.
Available to Gold and Diamond subscribers to TheGenealogist is a full record set of the Royal Navy servicemen killed or wounded in the battle. TheGenealogist is the only family history site to provide a complete specialist section devoted to these particular records.
The new Battle of Jutland records provide a full list of the men killed or wounded in the battle, with their rank, name of ship and date of death taken from official Admiralty sources. Records of the men lost range from Rear Admiral Robert Arbuthnot, commander of the 1st Cruiser Squadron who went down with his flagship HMS Defence, to 16 year old Jack Rutland who although mortally wounded stayed at his post on board the damaged HMS Chester.
For more details go to http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/news.php#latest
The major naval battle of World War One
HMS Warspite and Malaya- two of the Royal Navy ships involved in the battle
