This is a brief guide to help you with research into personnel in African armed forces. The records are comprehensive and varied, though sometimes complicated. Whilst some records are available at The National Archives, most material is currently held by the relevant national archive of the country in question. This guide will help you to find out if the information you are looking for exists and, if it does, where to find it.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the name and rank of the person
- where they served
- a date range to help focus the search
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What records can I see online?
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Campaign and award medals (1877-1953)
Look in the regimental medal rolls (WO 100) for a person in the African forces who received a medal using Ancestry.co.uk (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
Browse the long service and good conduct award registers (WO 102) in Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies.
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Medal index cards (1914-1920)
Search the First World War army medal index cards (WO 372) for a soldier serving in African force who received a campaign medala medal awarded to a person who took part in a particular military campaign or gallantry awardmedals awarded for heroic or exceptional service.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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South African War (1899-1902)
Browse our catalogue for service recordsservice record - a document recording the career of an individual in the armed forces and attestation paperspapers which were signed by servicemen upon entry into the armed forces for men who joined the Imperial Yeomanry in WO 129. The records are arranged by regimental number.
Look in WO 126 and WO 127 for records of units raised in South Africa which include details of men who enrolled. These are arranged alphabetically by unit name.
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King's African Rifles (1897-1953)
Browse the registersRegister - a volume of regularly and formally recorded information of correspondence relating to the formation and affairs of the King's African Rifles in CO 581, CO 582, CO 623, CO 624, and CO 820.
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Royal West African Frontier Force (1900-1912)
Browse correspondence relating to the formation and affairs of the Royal West African Frontier Force in CO 442 and CO 820.
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Royal African Corps (1800-1819 and 1822-1840)
Browse the general muster books and pay lists of the Royal African Corps and Royal African Colonial Corps in WO 12.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, pay for research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Records held abroad
Many service and operational records for African forces are held by the national archive of the relevant nation. For further information, please refer to Veterans UK.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Find the service number of a man in the Imperial Yeomanry, Lovats Scouts and Scottish Horse in the Boer War, 1899-1902 on the BritishMedals website.
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Books
Consult South African Field Force Casualty List, 1899-1902 (London, 1972).
Read Army Records by William Spencer (The National Archives, 2008).
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Births, marriages and deaths in the armed forces
Indian army
British Army soldiers up to 1913