Scooter wrote:Hi David,
Yes, I guess that's them. I've been lucky in the past and found two relatives service records (non-officers) at Kew, complete with the burnt corners!
Best wishes,
Scott
Scott
This info via a PM to/from Alexandra on this thread..........
QUOTE
Ancestry's July/August update refers to the LIA they have just been awarded to digitise WO363 and 364, Soldiers' Documents from the First World War. They refer to both series, incorrectly, as 'Burnt Documents' but in fact only WO363 is in this category, although unfortunatley it is much the larger of the two. There were originally about 6.5 million records, but about two thirds were destroyed and many of the surviving ones were damaged either by fire or by the water used to put the fire out. Ironically this was the result of an incendiary bomb in 1940. Ten years ago they were conserved and filmed through a combination of Lottery money and volunteers from the GSU.
WO364 was undamaged, and consists of the records of soldiers who were discharged with some kind of disability pension. I discovered that these can include under-age boys who had enlisted, but whose mothers caught up with them and made the Army let them go. They could be given a medical discharge on the grounds of 'immaturity'.
The documents that do survive in either series are often several pages long and give a lot of detail.
Ancestry don't give an estimated date when they will be available, except to say that it will be a 'multi-phase release'.
Incidentally, there are some WW1 records already digitised and online, as part of TNA's 'Documents Online' site, which is pay-per-view, currently £3.50 per download. These are Records of Seamen's Services 1873-1923, Women's Auxiliary Army Corps 1917-1920 and Royal Naval Division 1914-1919.
ENDQUOTE
David
