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Was your British Army Ancestor in uniform in 1921?

Posted on: 17, March, 2022

Was your British Army Ancestor in uniform in 1921? It’s often very tempting to assume that our lack of success in finding a service record for our British Army Ancestors is because of the unerring aim of Luftwaffe bomb-aimers in September 1940. Yes, millions of service records and a good deal more besides was destroyed […]

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William Polge, William Polliitt & Walter Scrivener remembered

Posted on: 30, July, 2021
William Polge, William Pollitt, Walter Scrivener

Every day on the British Army Ancestors Facebook page I take time to commemorate a British soldier. This post will look at three of the men I have remembered recently; from left to right: William Polge, William Polliitt & Walter Scrivener. William Edwin Polge Second Lieutenant William Edwin Polge of the 7th London Regiment was killed […]

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Find-a-Photo service launched

Posted on: 2, June, 2020

British Army Ancestors has launched a new Find-a-Photo service which aims to harness the powers of internet search to help users find photos of British soldiers. At the time of writing, there are just over 84,000 photos British Army photos that have been published on the British Army Ancestors website. Thousands more photos are published […]

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Finding photographs of your British Army Ancestor

Posted on: 1, January, 2019
Radley College prefects photographs 1906

What are the chances of finding photographs of your British Army Ancestors?  One thing is certain, our military ancestors weren’t shy of the camera. Since photography was invented in 1839 soldiers have posed in front of a camera in their millions. At the time of writing, a casual trawl on the UK version of eBay […]

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Welcome to British Army Ancestors. This is a FREE site. It will always be a FREE site. The vision is one of our vast army of British Army Ancestors brought to life. Search for a soldier. Upload a photograph. Search for another soldier. Upload another photograph. In time, it is intended that this site will become THE place to come to when looking for images of British Army Ancestors.

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SEARCH for a soldier. UPLOAD a photograph. REMEMBER the person. So many people asked me how they could find a photograph of their British Army Ancestor that I decided to create this site. Now it's up to you.Help make British Army Ancestors THE PLACE to come to when looking for photos of British Army soldiers. There are millions of searchable names on this site. Help me put faces to them. SEARCH, UPLOAD, REMEMBER.


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There are over 11 million searchable names on the British Army Ancestors website. Searching is easy and fast. Use the wildcard asterisk * to narrow your results. REGISTER in order to upload photographs and download existing images. That's all there is to it. This website will be regularly updated and new features announced via the blog. Thanks for supporting this initiative to put faces to the names of our British Army Ancestors.

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HELP ME PLUG THE GAPS!

Do you own medal roll transcriptions from WO 100 or similar? I am seeking to plug known gaps in this database of British Army Ancestors by adding medal roll transcriptions and other databases to this site, thus adding to the 11m+ searchable names you will find here. Please drop me a line if you would like to contribute: paul@britisharmyancestors.co.uk.

Launched in 2017, British Army Ancestors is a FREE site with a simple aim: to find or add photographs of British Army soldiers.

Soldiers

These six different avatars that you will find in search results identify the approximate periods of service of the individuals concerned.

Soldiers

On this British Army Ancestors website you will find over 12m records which have been collated from many sources. Search the database to add a photo or search the database simply to discover which records are available. Clicking the dark blue links in search results will take you to original records or transcriptions which are owned by third party partners such as The National Archives or Findmypast where payment may be required. The data on this site currently covers the date range 1850 to 1947.


The avatars on this site are intended as a guide for you and represent the British soldier throughout history. For example, if the red-jacketed soldier appears in your search results, this is an indication that this man probably served between 1850 and 1902.


SEARCH for a soldier, UPLOAD a photograph, REMEMBER the individual. There are millions of searchable names on British Army Ancestors and thousands of photographs covering conflicts from the Crimean War to the Second World War. HUNDREDS of new photographs are being added every week. Have you found your British Army Ancestor yet?


There are over 12 million names on the British Army Ancestors website and searching is easy and fast. Use the wildcard asterisk * to focus your search results. Searching is free but you will need to REGISTER in order to upload photographs or download existing images.

This website is regularly updated and new features announced on the British Army Ancestors blog. Remember too to check out the British Army Ancestors Facebook page which features a different person every day.

I RESEARCH SOLDIERS
In 2008 I launched my Army Service Numbers 1881-1918 blog and over the years I have helped hundreds (if not thousands) of military and family historians. I also carry out research. Drop me a line if you need help.

NOTE There is also a RESEARCH button against every returned result on this site. Click on this button to find out more about research services for individual soldiers.

There are currently 106498 photos of British Army soldiers published on this website