Ministry of Defence Medals and Records Offices, part of Defence Business Services, are attending family history show events where you can question the experts and order a service record…
The MOD Medals and Records Offices are to attend Rootstech at Excel, London on 24 to 26 October 2019. The show will be attended by family historians, societies and genealogical organisations. The MOD stand, supported by Restore plc, will be staffed by a DBS team, with colleagues from the Air Historical Branch, army and RAF disclosure branches and Restore plc.
They will offer:
Live post 1921 service record search facility
The MOD continues to hold all service records where the individual had a discharge date of post 1921, these total around 10 million records, with about 500,000 having seen service in World War 1. An assisted search facility will be offered that will in many cases enable confirmation of whether the MOD holds a record for an individual.
This information can then be used to apply for and receive the record at the event, or by using the forms on Gov.uk. To assist the search, some or all the following information is required: surname, initials, date of birth and service number.
Request a Service Record
For the first time, and exclusive to this event, where the service record search has confirmed that the MOD holds a service record, the MOD plans to offer a service whereby an order can be placed for that record with the record being available for collection three hours later. Payment of £30 will be taken when the order is placed. Customers who wish to use this service should note:
- the service is available only for army and RAF service records confirmed as held by the MOD using the service record search facility
- for service records where the subject individual is less than 116 years from date of birth, a death certificate will be required. For those killed in action, reference to the CWGC database will be accepted
World War 2 RAF casualty packs search facility
RAF casualty packs from World War 2 are being transferred from the MOD to The National Archives. Using the MOD’s archive and cataloguing database, an assisted search facility will enable identification of the pack that may relate to an individual.
This information can then be used to either access the pack at The National Archives, or, for those yet to be transferred, apply for details from the pack using the forms on Gov.uk. To assist the search, the following information is required: the name of the individual(s), date of incident and type of aircraft.
Interpretation of service records
If you already have a service record but are unsure what it says or how to interpret it, then DBS experts will be on hand to assist you.
Veterans Badge
If you have previously served in the armed forces and don’t yet have a veterans badge, then you can apply for and, after the required validation has been carried out, be issued with a veterans badge.