Transfer of records from the Ministry of Defence.
If you require WW2 service records or details you still need to contact the Ministry of Defence. Many of the military service records of the Second World War are still held by the Ministry of Defence but over four million have been transferred to The National Archives as part of the Ministry of Defence WW2 Service Record project. As part of this major project, most of the records of non-officer ranks in the British Army should have been transferred to The National Archives by the end of March 2024, but all Royal Navy and Royal Air Force records, for now, remain with the Ministry of Defence. See the project pages for details of how to access the Ministry of Defence service records. This is an ongoing project which will take some time.
See further details about WW2 Service records.
The catalogue entry will contain a soldier’s initials and surname, army or service number, and year of birth. After a hundred years have elapsed since a soldier’s date of birth, their full date of birth will be recorded. Each soldier has a unique army number, officers had personal numbers.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has begun the transfer of ten million personnel service records to The National Archives for permanent preservation. The records will be transferred to Kew over several years. A complex project is under way to manage all aspects of the transfer, including making the records accessible to the public.
