Research War Memorials

One of the key aims of the North East War Memorials Project is to provide assistance to those Groups and individuals wishing to learn more about their local War Memorials, and those remembered on them. This research would, we believe, fall into two main areas, firstly, the background to the Memorial itself – its inception, design, construction and siting, and, secondly, the identity and background, including the service records, of those remembered. Both areas are equally valid in terms of local history, though family historians are, naturally, more likely to be interested in the people behind the names.

Readers are invited to submit comments and suggest additions to, the material by e-Mailing 2014@newmp.org.uk Entering guidance notes in the subject line of the message. This remains very much a ‘work in progress’ and improvements will continue to be sought. In particular, the additional sources of information related to casualties from the Second World War, and subsequent conflicts, are being developed.

Researching the names on a War Memorial is probably getting easier as more and more books are published on different aspects of military and naval research, and as an increasing number of records are being made accessible on-line. While the trend for the greater availability of digital information, either in the form of the documents themselves, or searchable indexes, is of obvious benefit, it should not obscure the fact that, somewhere along the line of your research you will probably have to do more than sit at a computer. It will never be possible to digitise all records and at some point you will need to visit a library or an archive repository and turn the pages of a real book or document.

Dates

• When was the War Memorial built and dedicated? Some Memorials were dedicated before the end of the First World War.
• Have there been any additions to the memorial? Such as World War 2 names or other conflicts since or omissions and corrections.
• Dates of re-dedication/s, addition/s? Positioning.

Location

• Where is the location of the War Memorial? Why was it located where it is?
• Who owned the land or was there a special significance to the location allocated.
• Is this the original location? Has it been moved to a new location, if so, why and when?

Design and Materials

• What materials were used in the construction?
• Is there a local reason why this design was chosen?
• Who designed and/or made it?

Inscriptions

• What are the inscriptions on the Memorial?
• Which quotation/s was used?
• Which conflicts are commemorated?
• Are there names?
• What is recorded? Initials or forenames, ranks, regiments, date of death?
• How are names displayed? -Alphabetically, by rank, Regiment or by Regiment precedence, which War, which other criteria?
• Which names are actually recorded on the Memorial?
• Does the Memorial include those who served?

People

• Who headed the campaign to erect or create the War Memorial?
• Who contributed to the funds?
• Who unveiled or dedicated the War Memorial?
• Who was at the dedication?

Ownership

• Who is the custodian of the War Memorial?
• Who maintains it?
• What is the condition of the Memorial?
• Has there ever been any restoration work carried out on the memorial in its history?
• Is it a ‘Listed’ Memorial? Has it been designated a Grade I or Grade 2 by English Heritage?

Sources for information are usually locally based, each community made the decisions about its own War Memorial. Check the NEWMP web site to find what is known already about the War Memorial and which sources have been recorded (if any).

Local Newspapers

These are primary sources of information about the local War Memorial. There are fundraising events, reports of meetings and requests for names and details to be included. There is usually a detailed description of the ceremony as well as photos of the Memorial including the unveiling, Dedication details, list of names etc. and sometimes listing of the people who were present. However, the newspaper reports are not fool proof, spelling and transcription errors are common place, and some reports do not give a full listing of the names.

All newspapers are being archived by the British Newspaper archive site.

However, more local newspapers are being scanned at this present time but microfilm copies will probably have to be still consulted.

Record Offices/Libraries/Museums

These local resource centres should hold information about local War Memorials or records which have a connection to War Memorials. However, the archive offices do not always index their holdings under War Memorials or related headings.

They usually have general headings, e.g. Correspondence relating to St Mary’s Church. Searching on line using War Memorial, Roll of Honour, Cenotaph or World War 1 and 2 usually locates some items.

The best way is to find the notes or correspondence or even minutes of the church/organisations which have been discovered in your initial research. Company magazines and (potted) histories of local organisations or social groups can also be good additional sources.

Popular postcard/photograph local history books often include sections on life during the Wars and local Memorials.

Parish Churches

If a War Memorial is located in the Parish Church or in the church grounds/ graveyard there should have been a faculty from the Diocese which sometimes gives further information. These have often been deposited at Record Offices. Church Magazines are a good source. Clergymen have often retained Dedication leaflets in the Church records.

Non-Conformist Churches do not have to ask permission to add to or alter their buildings. However some Trustees and Society minutes have survived which may mention War Memorials.

Committee Minutes

Other groups would have had committee minutes but these have rarely survived. Most Head Teachers completed a daily or weekly Log Book which may detail War Memorials.

School and Company magazines also have additional information.

The architects who designed the Memorials can also be a source, especially their notebooks/sketches or plans.

The records of local stone masons are also a good source of additional information.

Local dignitaries also may have deposited their papers or personal letters, diaries etc. these could also provide further information.

Some resource material includes photographs. Please always get permission to use photographs and please credit the source.

Local Council Minute Books

• Tyne and Wear Archives
• Northumberland Archives
• The Story Durham

Libraries

There are 167 local authorities and community led libraries in the North East as at January 2025. Local libraries were visited in person by over 5 million people in the year 2022/23. (Latest figures available). Visting a Library may also help in identifying information or sources.

North East War Memorials Project

Use the NEWMP website for further additional links, to other local sources such as Newspaper articles, books and other Websites which may also help with research.

When you are finished your research, please send NEWMP any additional information, sources, other details and photographs.

Outside the North East area the War Memorial Archive (formerly the United Kingdom National Inventory of War Memorials), has a searchable database, they would find your information useful, this is being maintained by the Imperial War Museum and covers the whole of the country. Also War Memorials online can be consulted and you can become  involved.

Advice about existing War Memorials, including funding, further resources and updated help sheets can be found at the War Memorials Trust website.

The Trust is the only charity which funds EXISTING War memorials and renovation or repair work.

If you have concerns or require help and advice about your War Memorial and further guidance, there is a full range of F.A.Q. sheets to help and guide you. Essential reading if you are proposing to renovate or move or repair your existing War Memorial.

Researching Names on the War Memorial

Please check with NEWMP to see if the names on your War Memorial have been researched already, or are being researched.

When a War Memorial was first proposed certain local decisions were made about who was to be included or recorded on the Memorial. The names to be included on Memorials in Schools, Clubs, and Workplaces were easily established and were self-limiting. However for village, town or city memorials it was a more difficult decision.

Also, there is no law in the land which says that a name has to be on a War Memorial! The criteria can vary:

• Only those born in the town or in the parish.
• Armed Forces – Army, Navy, RAF, and including Merchant Navy?
• Civilians killed by Enemy Action?
• Residents of the town or village at the time of their death?,
• Families’ wishes, not everyone wanted their relative’s name on the memorial.
• Were those who served, to be included, or were casualties to be included

If you know the criteria used when the War Memorial was first inaugurated, it will help you to understand the original intent of the Memorial Committee.
If the person you are seeking is deceased, it is usually easier to trace, as there are more sources or records recording their history.

Census Records

Census records on line. With the 1921 census now available. Additional information about the census. Also the 1939 Register, used for the registering of Ration Books and Identity Cards in September 1939. (Known as Registration week).

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

This site has been further enhanced with additional paperwork associated with the burial and original Grave location reports. www.cwgc.org.

This site which again has been recently updated records all Commonwealth war dead from the First and Second World Wars. You can locate their grave or memorial, and sometimes the next of kin details are available. Please note every family/relative was offered a headstone where possible, sometimes the offer was not accepted, and the family/relative wished for their own remembrance family plot or headstone.

In 1917 the, then Imperial, War Graves Commission (now CWGC) was established and was made responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of British war casualties, to build memorials of those with no known grave, and to keep records and registers. The principles upon which the Commission worked were: each of the dead should be commemorated individually by name on a headstone (for identifiable remains buried in a cemetery) or memorial (where there are no identifiable remains); the headstones and memorials should be permanent; the headstones should be uniform, with no distinction made on grounds of rank, race or creed. The Commission has information about personnel in all the armed services who died between 4th August 1914 and 31st August 1921 and 3rd September 1939 and 31st December 1947.

The search can be undertaken on surname and initials, though only one search field is required, (not forename), also you can enter the Regiment or unit that they may have served in. Search by date of the casualty as well as cemetery if known.

Only 65% of the casualties have next of kin recorded, because not all the ‘Final Verification’ forms sent to the last known address of a casualty’s next of kin were returned. But the availability of the Census or the service record may provide further clues to the rest of the family members or next of kin. Further documentaion is being added to the CWGC archives.

WW1  Soldiers Died in the Great War

Soldiers Died consisting of 80 volumes is also available in a CD from Naval and Military Press. Parts of the Soldiers Died records are available on Find My Past. But be aware there are transcription errors.

Information provided is:

name, rank, service number (except for officers), unit in which they served, date of death, new information: place of birth (except for officers), place of enlistment (except for officers), place of residence (except for officers), mode of death, other units in which they served, and miscellaneous information, which can include decorations (there is a specific ‘decorations’ field in the officers section).

.The Medal Index Cards (and the Medal Rolls Index) were created towards the end of the First World War to enable the Army Medal Office to record, in one place, all the details about an individual’s medal entitlement. They have been microfiched and the fiches are now available on open-access in The National Archives as WO 372 (Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War). The original cards have been given to the Western Front Association. The Medal Index Cards have been microfilmed by The National Archives and the films scanned, and they can be downloaded.

The cards have a number of slightly different formats, but all should contain:

• name,
• rank(s),
• unit(s) in which they served,
• service number(s),
• new information:
• first operational theatre in which they served (sometimes),
• date they landed overseas (sometimes), and
• medals to which they were entitled, with original Army Medal Office medal roll and page references (to WO 329).

The theatre of war is indicated by a code – 1 for service in France and Flanders up to 31 December 1915, and 1a for service there from 1 January 1916. If you need help in deciphering or reading these cards Medal cards, There is guidance available on the Long Long Trail web site, an invaluable source about WW1..

The medal rolls, WO 329 (Service Medal and Award Rolls, First World War), show the entitlement to the medals and the details of issuing the medals, but only give one more piece of information than the cards – the battalion number.

Officers had to claim their medals, but ordinary soldiers were automatically sent theirs. In the case of both officers and soldiers who had died in the war the medals were automatically issued to their next of kin.

All those who saw service overseas were awarded a campaign medal, and since there is no overall list of all those who served in the war, the medal rolls (and their indexes) are the nearest equivalent.

The First World War campaign medals were:

The 1914 Star

(also known as the ‘Mons Star’), a bronze four-pointed star with a ribbon of red merging into white and then into blue. It was awarded for service in France and Flanders between 5 August and midnight on 22/23 November 1914, mainly to members of the Regular Army and Territorial Force. A bar or clasp with those dates was awarded to those individuals who had been under fire in that period. The recipient’s service number, name, rank, battalion and unit are stamped on the reverse.

The 1914/15 Star

also a bronze four-pointed star with a ribbon of red merging into white and then into blue. It was awarded for service in France and Flanders between 23 November 1914 and 31 December 1915, and for those who saw service in any other operational theatre from 5 August 1914 to 31 December 1915. The recipient’s service number, name, rank and unit are stamped on the reverse.

The British War Medal

1914-1920, a circular silver medal with a ribbon with a central golden yellow band with stripes of white, black and blue on each side (the blue outermost). It was issued to commemorate the successful conclusion of the war and was awarded to service personnel and civilians who either entered a theatre of war or rendered approved service overseas (i.e. entering a theatre of war was not essential) between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. Service in Russia in 1919 and 1920 was also included. The recipient’s service number, name, rank and unit are stamped around the edge of the medal.

The Allied Victory Medal

1914-1919, a circular bronze medal with a ribbon of two rainbows with red in the centre. It was issued to commemorate the Allied victory, was never awarded alone and went to all personnel (service and civilian) who had served in an operational theatre of war, i.e. to all of those who received the 1914 Star or 1914/15 Star, and to most of those who received the British War Medal. It was never awarded on its own. The recipient’s service number, name, rank and unit are stamped around the edge of the medal.

The Territorial Force War Medal

1914-1919, a bronze medal, was awarded to those who had joined the Territorial Force on or before 30 September 1914, who volunteered for overseas service before 1 October 1914, and who had served in an operational theatre of war between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. Those who received either of the Stars were not eligible for this medal.

The Silver War Badge

(sometimes wrongly called the Silver Wound Badge) was awarded to all military personnel who had been discharged as a result of sickness contracted or wounds received as a result of war service, either at home or overseas. It was a circular badge with the legend ‘For King and Empire – Services Rendered’ surrounding the George V cipher.

The trio of a Star, War Medal and Victory Medal was known, respectively, as ‘Pip, Squeak and Wilfred’, after characters in a Daily Mirror comic strip which was popular in the early 1920s when the medals were being issued.

These Medal Index Cards do not exist for other services in the Great War, or for any of the services in World War II, but Great War Medal Rolls are held at the National Archives for the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Naval Air Service.

British WW1 Medal Records 1914-1920

It is believed that the records of medals issued for service during 1914-1920 form the only more or less complete list of people who, by the fact that they were eligible to receive a WW1 medal, can be considered to have “participated” in the First World War. It should, therefore, be possible to trace and confirm that an individual served in the First World War from the medal records.

The records of the issue of medals and awards were not damaged by enemy bombing in the Second World War, as was the case for the Service Records.

The London Gazette

An online historical archive has been created from the digitization of the printed volumes. The archive includes the period covering the World Wars (1914-1920) and (1939-1948). The London Gazette website contains basic information about how to get started on searching for military awards and citations: www.gazettes-online.co.uk Help

The best method of tracing a WW1 soldier is obtaining where possible the Military service record for the individual.

Military WW1 Service records.

There were about 6-7 million soldiers (Other Ranks and Non-Commissioned Officers) who served with the British Army in the First World War. Each soldiers’ record of service was stored by the War Office after the First World War was over.

The 2 Million “Burnt Documents ” (WO 363).

Unfortunately about 60% of the soldiers’ Service Records were irretrievably damaged or lost completely as a result of enemy bombing in 1940 during the Second World War. The exact number of serving British soldiers is not known because of the loss of the records.

However, about a third, approximately 2 million, were saved from destruction. These records are known as the “Burnt Records”. Officially they are classed as WO 363 records, which is the reference number given to them by the National Archives.(The “WO” in the classification code stands for “War Office”.) As a result of the loss of so many of the First World War Service Records, there is now only a 40% chance that the Service Record of the individual you want to trace will be available to examine.

The surviving 2 million “Burnt Documents” Service Records are for soldiers who were discharged, demobilized at the end of the war, who died between 1914 and 1920 and who were not eligible for an Army pension. Some soldiers who were in the regular army before the outbreak of war in August 1914 may, however, be included in this class of records.

The Service Records will not include soldiers who continued to serve in the military after 1920. Their records are not available for public access.

The “Unburnt Documents ” (WO 364).

In addition to the 2 million or so “Burnt Documents ” there are also 750,000 Service Records which survived the Second World War bomb damage. These records are for soldiers who were discharged for medical reasons (illness or wounds) during the First World War. These records also include soldiers who were in the British Army before August 1914 and who were eligible for an Army pension because their term of service came to an end in or before 1920. This group of records are known as the “Unburnt Documents”. Their official classification by the National Archives is WO 364.

Service Records of the Household Cavalry.

All the Service Records for Other Ranks and Non-Commissioned Officers of the Household Cavalry survived the Second World War intact.  These are available at the National Archives on line.

Service Records of the Guards Regiments.

The Service Records of the Guards Regiments are held by each regiment. They are not complete as some were damaged during the Second World War bombing too. Go to the Government website at  GOV.UK. The Coldstream Guards have enlistment records at the  Find my past Website. Service records from the Brigade of Guards (The Grenadier, Coldstream, Irish and Welsh Guards) have now transferred to the Army Personnel Centre, including First World War records (see above). Scots Guards records are currently held by the Scots Guards Archives. Fees and restrictions apply. Regimental Headquarters Scots Guards
Wellington Barracks
Birdcage Walk
London
SW1E 6HQ

Information Contained in Soldiers’ WW1 Service Records.

A soldier’s Service Record will include information about an individual’s military service from the date when he enlisted to the date when he was either discharged from the military or when he died while serving. The information held within the Service Record usually includes: ◾serviceman’s name ◾age ◾place of birth ◾occupation on enlistment ◾marital status ◾ regimental number ◾date of attestation (enlistment) ◾physical description A number of forms are usually included in the Service Record as follows and as appropriate: ◾attestation forms (a form completed when an individual enlisted) ◾ medical history forms ◾casualty forms ◾disability statements ◾regimental conduct sheets ◾awards ◾proceedings on discharge from the service ◾cover for discharge documents ◾index cards

Pension Card Records

The Western Front Association in 2012 stepped in and rescued millions of WW1 Pension cards  from the Ministry of Defence. These are now available from the Ancestry web site or the Western Front Association web site.  These are a rich source of additional information.

Gratuity Awards

The amount of gratuity given to a soldier can indicate his approximate month of enlisting. See https://wargratuity.uk/. Fees will apply. 

It would help you when you are looking through the surviving Service Records it is recommended that you have the following information if possible:

• individual’s surname and christian name or initial(s)
• military rank
• service number
• regiment

The reason for this is that, unless the individual has an unusual name, there may be other men with exactly the same surname and initials and/or christian name in the records.

It is also worth bearing in mind that if a soldier served in the war for any length of time he might have been transferred to different battalions or regiments. This would likely have been the result of a requirement for drafts of men into other units which had suffered casualties in action. If this was so, he might have at least two or even three regiment designations and a different regimental number for each transfer. This information may be available from the medal records of an individual.

Where to View British Army Service Records.

Surviving Service Records (WO 363) and Service Records with Pension Records (WO 364) are available to the public to view in two ways:

1. They can be accessed on microfilm for free in person at the National Archives in Kew, where the original records are stored.
2. In a joint project between the National Archives and www.ancestry.co.uk all 2.75 million surviving Service Records have been processed onto a database. The database contains images of the original records. Access to the online database is by subscription through www.ancestry.co.uk.

British Army WW1 Service Records, 1914-1920 (Officers)

From 1871 it was decided that officers in the British Army would no longer be able to purchase a commission. From this point in time a new system of maintaining officers’ records was introduced to the War Office by the Military Secretary’s Department. The records of an officer would be kept by the individual unit. These in turn were bound into Army Book 83.

In addition, a correspondence file was kept for each officer. The correspondence file would contain details of his pension, his medical records, whether he had died while serving, reports on repatriation if he had been a prisoner of war, and so on.

Information Contained in Officers’ WW1 Service Records

The Service Records of officers who served in the First World War, and which have survived to date, number approximately 217,700. The records that survive are those which were kept as a supplementary file. The main files on each individual officer were destroyed by enemy bombing in the Second World War.

As these are supplementary files, the amount of information they contain may be varied. Some may be very limited but others may contain attestation papers, records of service, personal correspondence and date of death.

Access to Officers’ WW1 Service Records

The records are held at the National Archives and classified as WO 339 and WO 374. They cover officers who served in all branches of the Army and the Royal Flying Corps. Officers who continued their service after 31st March 1922 are not included as the files for these individuals have not yet been released for public access.

Where to View Officers’ Service Records

The surviving officers’ records are available to view by the public for free at the National Archives in Kew.

Officers’ Service Records in WO 339

The Service Records of 139,908 officers are included in this class of records held at the National Archives in Kew, London. They were individuals who ended their service with the Army before 1922, they were a regular British Army officer before 1914-1918 or they were commissioned into the Special Reserve of officers.

Index for Finding a WO 339 Officer’s Service Record

An index of 23 volumes for all the officers’ records in WO 339 is provided in a separate classification of WO 338. This index is in alphabetical order. When the individual is found there will be a “long number” identification for him. Also there will be the detail of his surname, initial(s), regiment, “long number” and rank.

This “long number” will be required to find him in the WO 339 class of records, which is arranged by “long number”.

The index at WO 338 can be viewed free of charge on microfilm at the National Archives.

Officers’ Service Records in WO 374

The Service Records of 77,799 individuals include officers with a Territorial Army commission or a temporary commission. These officers are listed in alphabetical order.

Other WW1 Military Service Records

• British WW1 Military Service Records
• Australian WW1 Military Service Records
• Canadian WW1 Military Service Records
• New Zealand WW1 Military Service Records
• US WW1 Military Service Records

Other British WW1 Service Records

Navy Service Records

Royal Navy Service Records Available here are over 600,000 Royal Navy service records for ratings who joined the service between 1853 and 1923. Some of the records cover periods of service up to 1928.

Also another useful site Royal Navy Research Archive

Women’s Royal Naval Service Records 1917-1919

Royal Naval Division Service Records 1914-1919

Royal Navy Officers’ Service Records 1756-1931

Royal Navy Officers’ Service Record cards and files c.1840-c.1920

Royal Naval Reserve Service Records 1860-1955

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Service Records 1903-1922

Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) Officers’ Service Records 1906-1918

Royal Marines’ Service Records

Air Personnel Depending on which arm of the Service an airman served with before the Royal Air Force was created on 1st April 1918, that is, if he was with the Royal Flying Corps or the Royal Naval Air Service, and also if he continued service after 1922, the records may currently be held in different archives.

Information and guidance to look for Service Records of airmen who served in the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.), Royal Naval Air Service (R.N.A.S.) and Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) after it was formed on 1st April 1918, can be found on the National Archives’ website at the following links.

Royal Flying Corps

Royal Naval Air Service

Royal Air Force

Women’s Royal Air Force WW1 Service Records

Royal Air Force Officers’ Service Records

Over 99,000 Service Records for Royal Air Force officers who served during the First World War are currently held at the National Archives in Kew, Surrey, England. The records also include the service of officers who served in the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service. They are held in the series AIR 76.

Online Air Personnel Records

If you are looking for the Service Records of an airman who served during the First World War they are now available online if he was a casualty, the Royal Air Force Museum have Casualty Cards and the Story Vault.

Also available are the Red Cross First World War Volunteers records and Prisoner of War record cards for WW1 and WW2.

WW1 Pension records are  available through www.ancestry.co.uk this  valuable source can provide additional information as can Soldier Effects provided by the  National Army Museum in London.

World War 2

For army casualties in World War II there is a  CD ‘Army Roll of Honour – World War II’. Royal Navy and Royal Air Force casualties are not covered on the CD. If you require WW2 service records or details you 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 so far to The National Archives as part of the Ministry of Defence Service Records Project. As part of this major project, most of the records of non-officer ranks in the British Army have been transferred to The National Archives, 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. 

The National Archives, from the 2nd February 2026 will be introducing Fees to access these records. See this link for more details. 

See further details about WW2 Service records.

At the moment the service records are being added from the WO 420 series.

WO 420 The Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

WO 421 Selected Smaller Corps other Ranks.

WO 422 Infantry Over age other Ranks.

WO 423 Other Ranks and Nurse.

WO 427 Womans Services in  East Africa, Nurses and Other Ranks.

The National Archives may add additional series in the future as more files as added. 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. 

Other ranks who served with the Royal Artillery 1893-1942 – Royal Artillery Attestation records on Find My Past (£)

Other ranks who served with the Royal Tank Corps 1919-1934 – Royal Tank Corps Enlistment Records on Find My Past (£)

Records for over 80,000 members of the County Durham Home Guard (WO409) (Files for those born less than 100 years ago cannot be downloaded) on The National Archives (£)

WW2 Australian Service Records.

WW2 Canadian Service Records

WW2 New Zealand Service Records

WW2 United States of America Record

The Second World War campaign medals were:

The 1939.45 Star.

The 1939-1945 Star

The 1939-1945 Sar is a military campaign medal instituted on the 8th July 1943 by the United Kingdom tp award to subjects  of the British Commonwealth for service in the Second World War during specified periods of operational service overseas (between 3rd September 1939 and 2nd September 1945). The general criteria was 180 days of service with more specific criteria depending on the service arm.

The War Medal

The War Medal 1939-1945 is a British campaign medal instituted by the United Kingdom on the 16th August 1945. The medal was awarded to subjects of the British Commonwealth who had served full-time (28 days of service) in the Armed Forces or Merchant Navy for at least 28 days between the 3rd September 19139 to the 2nd September 1945.

The Medal was also available for subjects commissioned or enlisted into British Forces who had not received a similar award from their own Governments. Also eligible were full-time paid members of the specially approved colonial and other military forces.

The France and Germany Star

The France and Germany Star is a military campaign medal established by the United Kingdom in May 1945 and is awarded for subjects of the British Commonwealth that had served between the 6th June 1944 and the 8th May 1945 in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands or Germany and adjacent sea areas. 

The Italy Star

The Italy Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to subjects of the British Commonwealth who served in the Italian campaign from 1943 to 1945.

 

The Africa Star

The Africa Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom on the 8th July 1943 awarded to subjects of the British Commonwealth who served in the Second World War between the 10th June 1940 to 12th May 1943 inclusive, specially North Africa. No one can be awarded 5 (now 6) campaign stars and no- one could be awarded more than one clasp to any one campaign star.

The Pacific Star

The Pacific Star is a military campaign medal of the British Commonwealth nations, including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. It was established in 1945 to recognise in the Pacific theatre of War in World War 2. 

The Pacific star was awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth forces who served in specified territories and operational areas in the Pacific region between the 7th December 1941 to the 2nd September 1945. These area included South East Asia, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.   

 

The Burma Star

The Burma Star is a military camapign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for awards to subjects of the British Commonwealth who served in the Second World War, specifically Burma from 1941 to 1945. 

The Arctic Star

The Arctic Star is a military campaign medal which was instituted by the United Kingdom on the 19th December 2012 for award to subjects of the British Commonwealth for service in the Second World War, specifically on the Artic Convoys north of the Artic circle.

The Arctic Star is a retrospective award and was approved by the Queen and announced late in 2012. The institution of this medal was the end result of a 16 year long campaign by veterans who stressed that service in the artic convoys north of the Arctic Circle was entirely different from that in the Atlantic, for which the Atlantic Star had been awarded. This is the first British medal to be instituted using a dead monarch's cypher or effigy, who did not give permission for it to be instituted.

The Atlantic Star

The Atlantic Star is a military campaign medal, instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945 for award to subjects of the British Commonwealth for service in the Second World War. It was awarded specifically for those who took part in the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous campaign of the war, which took place between the 3rd September 1939 to the 8th May 1945.

The Air Crew Europe Star

The Air Crew Europe Star is a military campaign medal instituted by the United Kingdom in May 1945. It was awarded to subjects of the British Commonwealth for service in the Second Word War.

The Air Crew medal commemorates flying operations from the United Kingdom all over Europe and was intended primarily for aircrew.

The Defence Medal

The Defence Medal is a campaign medal that was instituted  by the United Kingdom in May 1945 and awarded to British subjects of the British Commonwealth for both non-operational military and certain types of civilian service during the Second World War.

The Defence Medal was awarded to British, British Commonwealth, and British Colonial personnel who served  from or outside their home countries in a non-operational area or in an area subject to threat, such as attacks from the air, and for non-operational service in the Armed Forces, the Home Guard, the Civil Defence Service and other approved civilian services. The length of qualifying service required for the award of the Defence Medal varied, depending on where and what role and individual served.