A major British Great War archive of 6.5 million records

The Western Front Association (WFA) announces that it has secured the safe storage of a major archive of over six million British Great War soldiers' pension record cards obtained from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

These are records of dependents of each serving WW1 British soldier, sailor, airman and nurse who was killed and entitled to a pension, as well as service personnel who were wounded or otherwise incapacitated due to the conflict. There is a card for each of:

• Other Ranks Died (this contains nearly one million individual records)
• Widows and Dependents of Other Ranks Died (in excess of one million records)
• Other Ranks Survived: Requested/Rejected/Receiving Pension (over 2.5 million records)
• Officers survived and Officers' Widows (approximately 150,000 records)
• Merchant Naval Cards (about 5,000 records)

The records unite genealogical information with military information: the soldier's date of birth, address and the names and dates of birth of dependants.

Further information on the WFA plans for the collection and how to request a look up is at http://goo.gl/tUKWC