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Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:25 pm

,
Although i have been to KEW a number of times i have not been able to study the Pay & Muster Rolls and have barely looked into the Medal Rolls , i pose some BASIC questions and hopefully next time i am there can actually delve into these , thank you .

1. Why were the service papers of the 1 / 24 th taken into battle and not apparently the Pay & Muster rolls ? .

2. Are the pay & muster rolls separate or combined ? .

3. What is the information contained in the Medal rolls for an individual ? .

I shall upon my next visit to Kew just look into these and obtain the refrences when there , thank you , " Sapper " Cool

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:55 am

Graham,

1. The service papers were NOT taken into battle. The documents lost were the company roll books. At the period you are researching the WO97 boxes (i.e. soldiers discharge papers) only contain those papers of soldiers where a pension (either long service or disability) was involved. For the short service soldiers few papers have survived. Obviously for those killed or death in service no papers survived - they were destroyed by War Offcie. If you go on 20 years, i.e. the Boer war period, most of the short service papers have survived.

2. Pay & Muster rolls - handwritten - separate for each battalion - by quarter - list the battalion - officers, then by rank. Private are listed more or less in aphabetical order. Useful for picking up first names. At the end of each quarter, there are deaths, fines (mostly for excessive drinking), allotments, married establishment (the latter may be of the greatest interest to you as they give wife's name and no and age of children) - 1st Battalion 24th - WO12/4155-4157, WO16/1573-1575 - 2nd Battalion - WO16/1576-1581.

3. Medal Rolls are by battalion - handwritten - more or less in alphabetical order - contain a lot of inaccuracies - names, initials (no first names) and clasp awarded. WO100/46

Then you have the chaplains' returns which give you marriages, deaths, births (of those on the married establishment) when the battalion is overseas.

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:41 am

,
Dear Martin , Hope you had a pleasant trip back from North Wales , what a fantastic book Alister has produced , no wonder i aspire to his standards regarding research . Smile

.

Thank you for clarifiying the matter of the service papers ect , i amongst others believed that the service papers of the 1 / 24 th WERE taken into battle , this was and remains an error of course . I was aware that the papers of men killed in action were destroyed , thank goodness Mr Hitlers bombers did not get others ! . I will try and look into the muster rolls ect on my next visit some time next year and thank you for your advice on this query , " Sapper " Cool