Research Enquiries
The PWRR and Queen’s Regiment Museum offers assistance to academics and members of the public with research enquiries. We can arrange access to objects in our collections, answer questions about our regimental history and traditions, and much more.
We also assist with researching family history as much as we can.
Researching a Soldier's Service History
The PWRR and Queen’s Regiment Museum does not hold individual service records of soldiers who have fought in our forebear regiments. However, we may be able to help you understand the places an individual served while they were in the army.
Finding a soldier in an archive requires a few vital pieces of information:
- Their full name
- Their rank
- When they served
- The regiment they served in
- If possible, the battalion they served in.
Any other information – for example, whether they received a gallantry medal, if they were killed in action or died while serving – is also very helpful.
Unless a soldier has received a gallantry medal, or their exploits are written about in a war diary, it is unlikely that we will be able to tell you about any specific actions they might have carried out. If you are researching an officer, we could be able to tell you more about their service than an enlisted soldier.
If the soldier you are looking for served prior to 1921, you might find more information about them on the National Archives website. For soldiers who served in the First World War, this is the best resource for service records. It may be possible that another regimental archive might hold the answer to an enquiry – if so, we will do the best we can to signpost you in the right direction.
It is much harder to research a soldier who served after the First World War. The service records of soldiers who fought in the Second World War are not currently available online but can be requested by members of the public from the Ministry of Defence for a small fee.
