War Memorials, Graves & Rolls of Honour Including Scotland

Nature of Source

War Memorial at Horse Guards London

Introduction
War memorials, rolls of honour and war grave inscriptions commemorate members of the armed forces and, in some cases, civilians who died as a result of war. Memorials may be found in churches, chapels, cemeteries, schools, workplaces, village halls, civic buildings and public spaces. The inscriptions can range from a simple list of names to detailed biographical information.

Where Found
War memorials are located throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. They may commemorate individuals from a particular locality, regiment, school, church, employer or organisation. Some memorials are national in scale while others relate only to a specific community or area.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) maintains military cemeteries and memorials around the world for casualties of the First and Second World Wars. Also consult local churches, cemeteries, museums, archives and family history societies. The Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials Register can help locate surviving memorials.

Further Research
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission casualty database is often the best starting point for research into military casualties of the First and Second World Wars. Entries frequently include details of next of kin and place of commemoration.

The publication Soldiers Died in the Great War records British Army casualties of the First World War and often contains information not found elsewhere. Researchers should also consult De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918, which contains biographical sketches and photographs of many officers and other ranks.

Local newspapers frequently carried casualty reports, obituaries, funeral accounts and memorial notices of those killed in action. School, church, workplace and regimental rolls of honour may provide additional biographical information.

Also consult military service records, pension records, medal records, casualty lists and unit war diaries to build a fuller picture of an individual’s military service.

Additional Resources
The following GenGuide sources could assist in researching war memorial records:

• Army – Casualty Lists, Other Ranks before 1914
• Army – Chaplain’s Returns, Regimental Registers and Service Departments Returns, Other Ranks & Officers
• Army – Registers of Deaths, Other Ranks & Officers, WWI
• Debt of Honour Register – Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• National Roll of the Great War
• Royal Air Force – Casualty Records, WWI

Where Found

Various locations around the UK and the world.

Period Covered

1800 – Onwards

Genealogical Value

• Name of the deceased.
• Rank, service number and regiment or unit.
• Age at death.
• Date of death.
• Place of burial or commemoration.
• Next of kin and names of parents.
• Home address.
• Occupation or employer.

Further References

• Corke, Jim. War Memorials in Britain: Shire Publications, 2005
• Fowler, Simon. A Guide to Military History on the Internet: Pen & Sword Books, 2007
• Fowler, Simon. Tracing Your First World War Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians: Pen & Sword, 2013
• Holt, Tonie & , Holt, Valmai. Major & Mrs Holt’s Battlefield Guide to Ypres Salient & Passchendaele: Pen & Sword Books, 2012
• Holt, Tonie & , Holt, Valmai. Major And Mrs Holt’s Battlefield Guide To The Somme: Pen & Sword Books, 2012
• Summers, Julie & Harris, Brian. Remembered: The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Merrell Publishers, 2007
• Summers, Julie. British and Commonwealth War Cemeteries: Shire Library, 2010
• Tall, Susan. War Memorials: A Guide for Family Historians: The Family History Partnership, 2014

Websites

The National Archives Guide
How to look for records of Deaths in the First and Second World Wars. This is an introductory guide to records of deaths of British and Commonwealth servicemen and women in the First and Second World Wars. It will also be useful in researching civilian casualties.
Imperial War Museum
Lives of the First World War. Discover, Explore and Remember Millions of Personal Stories From The First World War. The project tells the stories of individuals from across Britain and the Commonwealth who served in uniform and worked on the home front. Each person remembered has Life Story page using a variety of sources.
War Memorials Trust
The Trust works to protect and conserve war memorials in the UK. War Memorials Online allows users to build a complete picture of the whereabouts, type and condition of all war memorials in the UK.
The War Graves Photographic Project
The project aims to photograph every war grave, individual memorial, Ministry of Defence grave, and family memorial of serving military personnel covering all nationalities from WWI to the present day and all military conflicts. Users can search for by individual names or browse names by cemetery.
War Memorials Online
The site provides a platform designed to record and protect an estimated 100,000 war memorials across the UK. Operated by the War Memorials Trust, the website uses crowdsourced data, including user-submitted condition reports and photographs to help preserve and manage these historical sites.
Imperial War Museum
War Memorials Register. The Register is the comprehensive national register of UK war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. The register hold records for over 80,000 memorials in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man Search searchable by memorial name, type, locations and more.
The Great War 1914-1918
Records for the War Dead of WW1. How to trace a relative who may have died in the First World War.
War Memorials Trust
This bibliography provides the details of a selection of books related to war memorials, those recorded on them, remembrance and commemoration.
North East War Memorials Project
Research War Memorials. The guide offers practical advice for researching the history and background of a local war memorials and the people named on them. The guide also provides guidance on researching WWI service records and WWII records.
View from the Mirror
A Cabbies London: WW1 100: London’s Memorials. The series of posts documents the history, design and locations of World War I monuments throughout the city.

Online Databases

Ancestry

• United Kingdom, Military Roll of Honour, 1945-2022. The records in this collection were created by GOV.UK for the purpose of providing a searchable index for the Armed Forces Memorial Roll of Honour.
• UK, World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour, 1939-1945. Search more than 129,000 British, Commonwealth, Dominion, and Allied European air service members who lost their lives in service during WWII.
• De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1924.
• Gateshead, Durham, England, War Honours Scrapbook, 1914-1920.
• UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
• UK, Army Roll of Honour, 1939-1945
• British Jewry Roll of Honour, 1914-1918.
• Scotland, World War I Rolls of Honour, 1914-1918
• Edinburgh, WWI Roll of Honour, 1914-1919. This collection contains a roll of honour for people associated with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland who served in the British armed forces during the First World War.
• Aberdeen, Scotland, Roll of Honour, 1914-1918, 1939-1945

Findmypast

• British Rolls Of Honour and Nominal Rolls, First World War. The rolls of honour and nominal rolls in this collection are from places of work, universities, trades unions, places of work, various regiments, Pals battalions and city and town rolls.
• Middlesex War Memorials. Over 21,000 transcripts taken from War memorials in over 40 parishes in the English county of Middlesex. The collection contains names of soldiers who died while on active service between 1845 and 1998.
• Essex Memorial Inscriptions. The dataset contains records covering Anglican, Roman Catholic, Quaker, and non-conformist, as well as community and war memorials.
• British Army, De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour, 1914-1918.
• Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
• South Africa Roll of Honour 1914-1918.
• Greater Burnley Roll Of Honour 1914-1918.
• Army Roll Of Honour 1939-1945. The source is an original document held in series WO 304 at The National Archives, now decoded and put into a searchable database. It contains the details of British Army casualties during World War 2.
• Britain School & University Memorial Rolls 1914-1918. Search the names of individuals who fought in World War 1 from the University of Aberdeen, the University of London, Eton, Oxford, Manchester University, the University of Durham, the University of Edinburgh and St Andrews.

Naval & Military Archive
Military Genealogy: Datasets include:

• De Ruvigny’s Roll Of Honour 1914-1924
• Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919
• Army Roll of Honour 1939-1945
• National Roll of the Great War
• Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914-1918

The Debt of Honour Register
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The Debt of Honour Register records and commemorates the names of some 1.7 million Commonwealth men and women from all three services killed in the two world wars and others who died up to 31 December 1947.
IWM War Memorials Register
The site is the national register of UK war memorials and the names of the individuals they commemorate. The records includes memorials to members of the armed forces, civilians and animals from all wars and to those who died in service. The register contains 110,249 individual records in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and can include community crosses, plaques, lych gates, gardens, organs, windows and more unusual items. Some memorials commemorate all who served and not just those who died.
Findmypast
Military Service Memorial Collection. The archive contains nearly 550,000 individual entries including over 100,000 photographs and records from more than 4,000 memorials across the UK, the former British Empire, and Allied nations. You’ll find war graves, rolls of honour, and books of remembrance, including thousands of memorials from both World Wars.
A Street Near You
The site contains nearly 500,000 location records over 1,000,000 casualty records of men and women who died whilst serving in the First World War. The records are Searchable by postcode, address, cemetery or regiment and bring together data sources such as IWM’s Lives of the First World War, Commonwealth War Graves records, Imperial War Museums Collections and the War Memorial Register.
The War Graves Photographic Project
The project is a volunteer-run site that provides searchable photographs of war graves and memorials, with a database of over 1.9 million named graves and memorials of every service casualty since the outbreak of the First World War.
War Memorials Online
The site provides a platform designed to record and protect an estimated 100,000 war memorials across the UK. Operated by the War Memorials Trust, the website uses crowdsourced data, including user-submitted condition reports and photographs to help preserve and manage these historical sites.
GOV.UK
Find a Soldier’s Will. Search for the will of a soldier who died while serving in the British armed forces between 1850 and 1986 for England and Wales. Final handwritten wills and last letters home were kept by troops in their pocket service books and tucked into their uniforms. The wills, owned by Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service, include 280,000 soldiers who died in the Great War.
The Genealogist
Collections include: Roll of Honour; War Memorial Lists; War Memorials; Rolls Of Honour & Service. The rolls and memorials contain records for British Servicemen who participated in the Great War and the Second World War. Records can include detailed biographies with portraits and information on birth date, birth place, father’s name, education, career, and circumstances of death. Sources include: De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1918, The National Roll of the Great War, British Roll of Honour 1914-1918, Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth Memorial Register 1914-1921.
Genes Reunited
Medal Rolls & Honours Collection. Did your ancestors receive medals or honours for serving their country? Search our collection to find medal rolls and awards from 1793 to 1920.
In From The Cold Project
The aim of the project is to research and identify all service men and women missing from the official Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) list of casualties from the First and Second World Wars. The task is to get these soldiers, sailors and airmen their due recognition, even after the passing of so many years.
British War Graves
Search thousands of photographs of War Graves from Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemeteries and memorials in the UK & around the world.
Remember the Fallen
The site is the result of many years of research into the names recorded on Worcestershire war memorials and rolls of honour/service covering all conflicts.
Roll of Honour
The project provides free, transcribed war memorials and rolls of honour for locations throughout the United Kingdom and overseas.
London Remembers
The aim of the website is to document all the memorials in London, including. plaques, monuments, statues, fountains that commemorate a person, an event or a building. Memorials include WWI, WWII, Boer War and other war memorials some with biographies and photos.
North East War Memorials Project
The project aims to record every War Memorial located in the North East of England including Northumberland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Durham. The site offers detailed indexes, biographies and source materials for regional memorials.
Royal Mail Group Memorials
Searchable database of more than 300 individual war memorials in the care of Royal Mail. Searches can be carried out by name, location and keywords.
Lloyds Banking Group Archives
WWI Role of Honour. Commemorating staff who gave their lives in the First World War. Search for individuals from across all our First World War memorials.
National Railway Museum
Railway Workers Who Died in World War One: Search over 20,000 railway employees who died in World War One combining information from items in the library and archive centre such as railway staff magazines and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
GPO War Heroes
Search or view books of remembrance honouring the 12,830 postal employees who are recorded to have lost their lives fighting during both World Wars. The memorial books were compiled by James Trezies in the mid-1950s.
Jewish War Graves
The site offers a searchable database commemorating more than 2,300 Jewish soldiers who served in the British armed forces during World War II and gave their life. A full list of servicemen can be listed for each cemetery.
We Were There Too
British Jews in The First World War. The National Register of Jewish Memorial Boards offers a searchable database of Memorial Boards containing names of members of the Jewish community who served during the First World War. Some are still on display in synagogues, cemeteries and museums; whilst others are kept in archives or lost.
Cemetery Scribes
Search headstone inscriptions with photos from Jewish cemeteries throughout the UK and include war memorials and holocaust memorials. The records include Hebrew transliterations where possible and mini family trees for each individual. Detailed history for some of the cemeteries can be found under Cemetery Histories.
Gloucestershire Genealogy
War Memorial transcriptions covering Gloucestershire town and villages.
Gloucestershire Family History Society
War Memorial Indexes and Inscriptions. Search over 34,000 names on more than 1,300 memorials including where known age, rank, regiment and year of death. Full transcriptions are available at the Family History Centre or download from the shop on our website.
Friends of Medway Archives Centre
De Caville Index. The Index consists of over 4,000 names of men killed in World War One taken from memorials all over the Medway Towns, including men born in the area, those stationed there during hostilities and the Live Bait Squadron. Each record includes the name, dates of birth and death, rank, record number, address, burial place and many photographs.
Bath Ancestors
Bath WWI War Memorials, 1914-1925. Soldiers who died in the Great War, recorded on memorials around Bath. Taken from Andrew Swift’s book “All Roads Lead to France”.
Sheffield Indexers
Searchable database of the City of Sheffield Roll of Honour of Sheffield Men who fell or died of wounds in the Great War 1914-1918. Compiled in 1921 by the Town Hall on the authority of the Lord Mayor W. F. Wardley and Town Clerk William E. Hart. Courtesy of Wendy Wood.

Ireland
Ireland’s Memorial Records
Online access to some 49,000 names extracted from Ireland’s Memorial Records published in 1923. The memorial book detailed those who died or were mortally wounded during WWI, both civilian and military. Correct details about their place of burial or commemoration have been added. You can search by name or military unit and by place of birth whether Ireland or UK.
Irish War Memorials
The site offers an inventory of memorials in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to all conflicts throughout the world. The website has records of 851 places, 1,552 memorials and 42,910 persons.
Ancestry
Ireland, Casualties of World War I, 1914-1922. This data collection contains the book, Ireland’s Memorial Records an 8 volume set compiled by The Committee of the Irish National War Memorial originally published in 1923. These volumes provide information on over 49,000 Irish men and women who died in the Great War.
Naval & Military Archive
Military Genealogy: Datasets include Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914-1918.
Findmypast
Ireland’s Memorial Record: World War 1: 1914-1918. Names of over 49,600 Irishmen who lost their lives fighting in the war, published in 1923.
Findmypast
Ireland: National Roll Of Honour 1914-1921. These records give details of Irishmen, who died whilst serving in the British Army during the First World War. Also included are those soldiers who died in the three years after the end of the war.

Scotland
Findmypast
British Rolls Of Honour and Nominal Rolls, First World War. The rolls of honour and nominal rolls in this collection are from places of work, trades unions, places of work, universities, various regiments, Pals battalions and city and town rolls.
Findmypast
Scotland, Rolls Of Honour 1914-1920. Search rolls of honour which were created after the war from Cardross parish, Banff Academy, Glasgow High School, Murrayfield parish, University of Edinburgh and more.
National Library of Scotland
Rolls of Honour. The Scottish First World War rolls of honour contain listings of casualties and those who died while on active service. Includes rolls for organisations, such as schools, universities, clans, businesses and churches, as well as for places all over Scotland. Also some orders of service for unveiling of war memorials.

CD Roms

Naval & Military Press
The company has produced a number of CD/DVD-ROM products including:

• Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919: Army Roll of Honour.
• Airmen Died in The Great War 1914-1918: The Roll of Honour of the British and Commonwealth Air Services.
• Sailors Died In The Great War: Royal Naval Other Ranks Deaths 1914-1919.
• Soldiers Died in World War Two: Army Roll of Honour.

Scottish Military Research Group
The Lulu Spotlight Bookstore for the for the Scottish Military Research Group offers free downloads of:

• The City of Glasgow Roll of Honour 1914-1918 (listing the citizens of the city who fell in the First World War)
• The City of Glasgow Roll of Honour 1939-1945 (listing of the citizens of the city who fell in the Second World War)
• The City of Glasgow Police – War Memorials (lists men serving in the Glasgow Police who lost their lives in the two World Wars)

The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society
Rolls of Honour: Downloadable document produced in 1915 of the names and departments of all L&Y employees then serving and those reported as lost or missing. The second document was produced at the end of the war and lists all L&Y staff who gave their lives in the conflict and those who were decorated for bravery.

Internet Archive
Record of Service of Solicitors and Articled Clerks with His Majesty’s forces, 1914-1919. This The publication is a comprehensive 1920 biographical volume published by The Law Society Gazette that details the military involvement of legal professionals during the First World War including the fates of those who fell.