If you have an army child or two in your family tree, it may be possible to learn more about them by consulting certain family-history resources, while reading about the military conflicts in which the British Army has been involved over the centuries, and their historical context, may help to inform you about the times, and circumstances, in which they lived.
RESEARCHING ARMY CHILDREN
If you are interested in researching an army child in your family tree, it's best to consult a specialist genealogical publication or magazine, such as the Imperial War Museum's book Tracing Your Family History: Army (2006), for advice on how to proceed. Otherwise, the following basic tips may set you on your way if your army child, or children, were 'on the strength', or 'children of the regiment'.
- If the child was born in Britain, you should be able to track down details of his or her birth certificate in the same way as you would those for a child of civilian parentage (although it is still a work in progress, you can consult http://freebmd.rootsweb.com, which contains birth, marriage and death indexes for England and Wales, for free).
- If the soldier father was stationed in England or Wales in 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 or 1901, you should be able to locate the family in the appropriate national census (for further details, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk, and note that access to the 1881 census is free).
- If the soldier father was posted overseas, the GRO Army Birth Indexes (1881-1965), the GRO Army Chaplains' Birth Indexes (1796-1880) and the GRO Regimental Birth Indexes (1761-1924) may contain details of his children's births, and can be viewed free of charge, along with the equivalent marriage and death indexes, at http://www.familyrelatives.com.
- If the soldier father was stationed in India before 1949, the British Library's India Office Family History Search website, http://indiafamily.bl.uk/UI/, may be worth visiting. This offers a searchable database of selected birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial records, taken from the India Office Records, for British and European people living in India between around 1600 and 1949.
- The Families in British India Society (FIBIS) is devoted to members with an interest in researching British or Anglo-Indian ancestors who lived or served in the Indian Subcontinent from 1600 to 1947, and the background against which they led their lives in 'British India'. Non-members will also find viewable social-history-related material on its website, including a range of records and images. To explore it, click on: http://www.fibis.org
- The Jamaican Family Search website (see: http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com) contains lists of British Army regiments stationed in Jamaica between 1702 and 1962 and information relating to, and contained in, Jamaican almanacs and directories, transcribed books and newspapers, religious registers and wills, Jamaican monumental inscriptions, maps, photographs and much more. Most web pages are accessible only to members, but certain pages can be viewed by all, among them one that includes some details of baptisms and burials of army children; see: http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples/Soldiers.htm
- The Malta Family History website, http://www.maltafamilyhistory.com, is a real boon to those researching British individuals with Maltese connections, including soldiers serving in the British Army and their families. On this website, you'll find nineteenth- and twentieth-century registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths in Malta, indexes of the names of those buried in cemeteries on Malta, as well as of British soldiers who were stationed there, an illuminating article on the army chapel-schools in Malta and more besides.
- If you are researching a child who attended the Royal Hibernian Military School, Dublin, between 1765 and 1924, or the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, between 1803 and 1892, you may strike lucky if you visit: http://www.rma-searcher.co.uk. This detailed website presents admissions and statistical data taken from original records relating to both schools (and see http://www.achart.ca for their history).
A SELECTIVE TIMELINE OF CONFLICTS INVOLVING BRITISH TROOPS
1689-97: War of the Grand Alliance
1701-14: War of the Spanish Succession
1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession
1756-63: Seven Years' War
1775-83: American War of Independence
1793-1802: Wars of the French Revolution
1803-15: Napoleonic Wars (1808-14: Peninsular War)
1812-15: War of 1812
1814-16: Gurkha War
1833-42: First Afghan War
1845-46: First Sikh War
1848-49: Second Sikh War
1854-56: Crimean War
1857-58: Indian Mutiny
1867-68: Abyssinian War
1878-80: Second Afghan War
1879: Zulu War
1880-81: First Boer War
1884-85: Sudan Relief Expedition
1896-98: Reconquest of the Sudan
1899-1902: Second Boer War
1914-18: World War I
1919: Third Afghan War
1939-45: World War II
1950-53: Korean War
1956: Suez Crisis
1969-2007: Operation Banner (Northern Ireland)
1982: Falklands Conflict
1991: Operation Granby (the first Gulf War)
2001 to date: Operation Veritas, Operation Fingal and Operation Herrick (Afghanistan)
2003 to date: Operation TELIC (War on Iraq)
LINKS
The following links provide historical background information that explains much about many army children's lives and times.
- The National Army Museum: http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk
- The Imperial War Museum, which encompasses all aspects of war in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: http://www.iwm.org.uk
- The Army Museums Ogilby Trust's (AMOT's) website is approved by the Ministry of Defence as being the definitive guide to the regimental and corps museums of the British Army throughout the United Kingdom. It also provides details of specialist books and gives advice on researching army ancestors. Visit it at: http://www.armymuseums.org.uk
- The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum's website includes a 'Children of the Regiment' web trail that comprises pages entitled 'Travelling with the Regiment'; 'On the Strength'; 'Off the Strength'; 'Army Children at School'; and 'Order of 1812': To set off on the trail, visit: http://www.rnrm.org.uk/web_trail/web_children_01.html
- The British Empire website is a rich resource for those interested in imperial British history, including as it does biographies, timelines, a map room, a glossary, a discussion forum, articles and information on many aspects of, for example, the armed forces, art and culture and science and technology during this period, as well as research tools. Visit it at: http://www.britishempire.co.uk.
- The RevWar'75 website (http://www.revwar75.com) focuses on the Revolutionary War (or, as it is also called, the American Revolution or the American War of Independence, 1775-83). Don N Hagist's article 'The Women of the British Army in America' includes statistics and information relating to the children of British Army soldiers who found themselves in North America during the American Revolution; to read it, click on: http://www.revwar75.com/library/hagist/britwomen.htm.
- To read about the history of the British Army in Bermuda from 1776 to 1977, including the regiments and units stationed there, visit: http://www.bermuda-online.org/britarmy.htm. And to learn more about the cemeteries where British soldiers and sailors and their families who died in Bermuda were buried, visit http://bermuda-online.org/britishmilitarygravesbda.htm.
- The Second World War Experience Centre's mission is to 'collect and encourage access to the surviving testimony of men and women who lived through the years of the Second World War and to ensure that different audiences share and learn from the personal recollections preserved in the collection'. Explore it at: http://www.war-experience.org
- Children (& Families) of the Far East Prisoners of War (COFEPOW) is a registered charity dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Far East prisoners of war and advancing knowledge of the suffering endured and sacrifices made by them during their years of captivity in World War II. Several of its members are former army children, and the stories and memories of some can be read on COFEPOW's sobering, information-filled, reminiscence-rich website. Access it by clicking on http://www.cofepow.org.uk.
- The huge British Armed Forces and National Service website (http://www.britisharmedforces.org) is home to reminiscences and information on many aspects of the British armed forces and national service.
- The Britain's Small Wars website (http://britains-smallwars.com/) homes in on the history of British military conflicts since 1945. Here you'll find articles, reminiscences and anecdotes, as well as a forum, an online museum and memorial, recommended reading and much more.