Tracing ancestors in the royal navy

Women served in all three services from WWI onwards. They also served in support roles, such as the Women’s Land Army (in both wars), the Fire Services, Motor Drivers, Voluntary Aid Detachments and so

The British merchant service was renamed the Merchant Navy after World War 1 to mark the vital role its sailors played in wartime. That role continued in World War 2 as merchant ships carried troops a

The Royal Air Force was formed in the last year of the First World War. And by the time that the guns fell silent at the end of the Second World War, it had grown to almost one million serving personn

Beryl Nevell thought her service during the Second World War had been a case of ‘doing her duty’. Then someone special stepped in and showed her what she was truly owed…

Digitised records for British soldiers before about the middle of the 19th century are relatively rare; the exceptions are surviving pension records, the musters from the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) a

Today, the ocean liner is often considered a glamorous yet thoroughly outdated form of transport. While ships such as the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania remain household names, their lesser-known c