Searching soldier’s records to positively identify a serviceman, their unit and where they lived is also difficult. Over 60% of the National Archives were destroyed in the 1940 London Blitz. This included the War Records of five million British men and women that served in the World War One.
There is another set of records called the ‘Un-Burnt Series’ which includes 750,000 records of soldiers who were discharged for medical reasons during the war. They also include some pre-war soldiers whose term of service ended before 1920. However there are large gaps in both sets of records and it is necessary to unscramble many errors within them.
