The researcher is able to provide background information to a soldier's military career using resources such as the War Diaries and St. George's Gazettes which often mention the names of individual soldiers. The collection also contains many diaries, photos and other memorabilia which may add further background information.

Find Out Important Information

To enable the researcher to carry out a search we first need to know certain personal information which is NOT held in our archives:

e.g. service number, rank, battalion, service dates, transfers, etc.

These details can be found on a soldier's Record of Service available from either the National Archives or the Army Personnel Centre depending on the soldier's service dates:

Records for soldiers who served before 1920 are held at:

The National Archives
Public Records Office
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU

Telephone: 0208 876 3444
Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

(Please note that Record of Service documents are only available by visiting in person or by employing one of the National Archives researchers as they are not yet available online. It should also be noted that approximately 70% of the records were destroyed during WWII.)

Records for soldiers who served after 1920 are held at:

Army Personnel Centre
Historic Disclosures
Mail Point 400
Kentigern House
65 Brown Street
Glasgow
G2 8EX

Telephone: 0845 600 9663

Other Information Sources

It may be possible to find some personal details regarding a soldier’s career on paybooks, discharge documents, medals, etc. if such items are in your possession.

If you have no luck finding details please contact the museum and we shall try to help you as much as we can; it may still be possible to carry out limited research so it is always worth a try!

Further Useful Contacts:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
SL6 7DX

Telephone: 01628 634221
Website: www.cwgc.org

Ministry Of Defence
Army Medal Office Building
Building 250
RAF Innsworth
Gloucester
GL3 1EZ

Telephone: 01905 772323 Ext. 954717565

Sending us an Enquiry

Please submit your research enquiry in writing, supplying all the information you have managed to obtain from the above sources, along with your cheque made payable to the Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland.

The Researcher
Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland
Abbot's Tower
Alnwick Castle
Alnwick
Northumberland
NE66 1NG

Enquiries may take up to 4 months to process/research and all photocopying is subject to the physical state of the documents.

The museum cannot guarantee success when researching your enquiry and the search fee in such instances is not refundable.

Visiting our Archives in Person

The archives office is open to researchers Monday to Friday, 10 am to 2 pm, by appointment only. Please telephone on 01665 602152 to arrange an appointment giving a minimum of 2 weeks' notice.