This is a brief guide to researching British government and military records of a war involving Britain. Guidance is available for some major conflicts elsewhere on this site, but this guide will help you find general records not covered in other research signposts.
War records are wide-ranging, sometimes incomplete and are kept in a variety of places. This guide will help you gain a general overview of the main sources of the information that exists, and where to find it. This guide is for people interested in the subject of a war as opposed to those interested in finding a specific person who fought in a conflict.
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What records can I see online?
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Cabinet papers (1915-1978)
Search records of the Cabinet Office for the period 1915 to 1978 for documents concerning decisions and discussions before, during, and after a conflict or a war.
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Our online records
Browse Discovery, our catalogue to find out what records are available digitally from The National Archives concerning conflicts and wars.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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General records
Search and browse the following departmentsdepartment - The highest level in our records hierarchy, usually corresponding to the government department of origin to gain an overview of a conflict from various government and military records:
- War Office (WO), Admiralty (ADM) and Air Force (AIR) - this is where most armed forces and general war records will be found
- Foreign Office (FO) - correspondence, policy and negotiation with other states
- Ministry of Defence (DEFE) - this mainly covers military and defence records after the Second World War
- Prime Minister's Office (PREM) - mainly correspondence to and from the Prime Minister's office
- Home Office (HO) - this series focuses on domestic and internal affairs
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, commission 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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British Library records
Visit the British Library's website to find out what information they hold on wars and conflicts involving Britain, especially those concerning Asia, Africa and the Pacific.
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Imperial War Museum
Visit the Imperial War Museum's website to find out what information they hold on wars and conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Records held locally
Search the Access to Archives (A2A) and National Register of Archives (NRA) databases to find records held in local archives.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Explore the British Battles online exhibition on The National Archives website for an interactive history of several British conflicts.
Search The Times Archive and the Guardian and Observer Digital Archive to view articles (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) about conflicts involving Britain between 1785 and 2000.
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Second World War
First World War
Napoleonic Wars