British Soldiers Service Records for Brews, 1899-1920

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Listed below are summaries of the service records available at the Public Record Office (PRO) in London, England, for soldiers named Brew who enlisted in the Army between 1899 and 1920. They are to be found in the file WO 363, and are often referred to as The Burnt Documents.

According to the PRO website: 

Among the most popular records in the PRO are the service papers of British Army officers and men during The First World War, 1914-18. There can hardly have been a family or community in the land which did not send someone to The Front. When Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, made an urgent appeal for 100,000 volunteers. Within six months, over a million men had joined the 'New Army', answering the call to their sense of duty and patriotism. Brothers, friends, neighbours and colleagues frequently enlisted together. Many of the locally raised units had nicknames, known as 'Pals Battalions'. Most of the raw recruits had never seen armed combat, and gunnery skills had to be quickly learned. There was a shortage of officers and many types of equipment, and the carnage was so great, that after 6 January 1916 the early volunteers had to be replaced or reinforced by conscripts. By 11 November 1918, when the Armistice ended the war, just under two million armed personnel had been killed, reported missing or wounded.

Soldiers' papers: You can search the attestation and discharge papers, medical records and casualty forms (active service), forming soldiers' service records. These relate to men who died or left the Army before 1920.

Over 60% of the above were destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Microfilmed 'burnt' documents, relating to men who joined up for the duration of the war, who died or were demobolised at its end, are in PRO class WO 363; they are arranged roughly alphabetically by surname and forename. Similar information assembled from pension records of regular soldiers and men medically discharged, forms PRO class WO 364, also available only on microfilm. These too are arranged alphabetically by surname. Both sets of records identify individual soldiers by their regimental numbers.

It is possible to obtain a full copy of a serviceman's record from the microfilm at the PRO. This can either be done in person or arranged through a professional genealogist. The address of the PRO is Ruskin Ave., Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England, TW9 4DU. Phone: 876-3444, fax: 878-8905, website: http://www.pro.gov.uk/. 

Information regarding the service medals awarded to servicemen is listed in the database Service Medals Awarded to Brews in the British Army in the First World War, 1914-1918. Compared to the number of servicemen listed on that database, relatively few service records for other ranks have survived.

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