Genealogy Chat

my dad was in the second world war and wonderd if you can view any records on line,iv just been told that he was made a sargent his name was lewis gibson born 1923 in b,ham i know he was in egypt for a while many thanks angie x

there are regiment sites,so knowing his area or regiment would help

You can apply for his service record from the MoD, but you have to have either his exact dob or his army personnel number (pref. both) plus as much qualifying info as possible, and then they say it can take up to eight months for the papers to arrive! Costs £30 - non-refundable if the docs are missing. Merry

many thanks will have a look at some of the sites angie x

Hi i have found this site when i was looking for my uncle. http://www(.)military-genealogy(.)com (remove brackets) Which gives you the chance to search through war records. There is a small (about 50p per view) charge for this but you can find the right person first before paying. Hope this helps Angie

thank you angie iv got my dads release papers so have his service number and he was a sapper with the royal engineres angie x

If you have his discharge book thats all the info you should need really. It will have his rank, his number, his date of birth - everything you should need for applying for his service record. Angie, isnt that site for casualties only? You can actually view people who died in the war free at the CWGC site.

you can also, for £3.50 download any records of medals http://www(.)nationalarchives(.)gov(.)uk/nra/default.htm Cynthia

Angie, My husband recently obtained his father's service record from Kew. It took a few months and he was a bit disappointed in that he got about 6 pages of photocopies of forms and brief notes but it did not give us very much information. He too was a sargeant but we wanted to know more about where he had been as he died when my husband was 6 and his mother said he hardly ever discussed the war. We knew he had been in France (d. day &wounded) South Africa (what was he doing there - they were neutral) and moved fromn the Gordon Highlanders to the Parachute regiment and ended up an instructor. His service record never mentioned any of these places but only that he was in hospital in England recovering from wounds. Apparently there is another file, his war record, but we can't afford to send for it yet.

Fergie. I'm surprised to hear that you got his records from Kew. I would have thought that his service record, ie post 1920, would have been held in Glasgow? Keith

The service records cost £30 - both army and RAF - I cant wait for my dads to come. I didnt know you could get stuff from Kew for WW2 either.

many thanks for all your replys will look at the sites,i also had an uncle who died in 1915 in the war so these sites will be very usefull for that angie x

The Commonwealth war graves site will tell you quite a bit about him-no charge- it even tells you where the grave or monument is and allows you to print off a memoriam specially for him.

thanks hun have done that before for my great grandad he died in 1914 going to have a look now for him angie x