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<\/figure>\n\nRegular soldiers have been entitled to pensions since Charles II\u2019s reign, provided they served a stipulated number of years or were invalided out, but pensions ceased on death with no provision for widows. In 1854 the Royal Victoria Patriotic Fund, with Prince Albert as president, was established to coordinate and administer the private funds being collected for Crimean War widows and orphans. Within six months \u00a3290,000 had been collected. This was invested and small pensions paid to widows and dependants of men killed.<\/p>\n\n
In 1901, following pressure from the press and the general public, widows\u2019 pensions funded from the public purse were introduced, but only applied to women whose marriages had been recognised by the services. The Patriotic Fund continued to support others.<\/p>\n\n
The Army and Navy handled their own pensions, and this continued into the first two years of the First World War. There was such a high level of casualties, however, that the Ministry of Pensions was created in December 1916 to handle war pensions. This took several months to get fully established, during which time Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals continued to administer Army and Navy claims. The hospitals\u2019 records were gradually transferred to the ministry and form part of this important collection.<\/p>\n\n
Saved For Posterity<\/h5>\n\n
The Western Front Association (WFA) saved the pension records from destruction by the Ministry of Defence in 2012 and they\u2019re available on Fold3 (fold3.com<\/a><\/strong>), a military records website that is now owned by Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk<\/a><\/strong>). Access to the records on Fold3 is not included in an Ancestry subscription, so must be purchased separately. A monthly Fold3 subscription costs $7.95 and an annual one costs $79.95.<\/p>\n\n The surviving cards and ledgers of the ministry make up the collection examined here. Every service person killed, injured or otherwise incapacitated would have had a card created for them because there may have been a pension entitlement for them or their family. They include records for the Merchant Marine and Royal Air Force, but don\u2019t usually include colonial or dominion services. There are more than 7,500,000 records, although there is often more than one for a particular casualty.<\/p>\n\n Unfortunately there can be many problems in dealing with the records. The formats for cards (even those dealing with the same kind of claim) differ, they\u2019re usually handwritten and difficult to read, and the information on the card sometimes differs from other sources and needs to be checked. Also, it appears that some cards were made out in advance in anticipation of a claim that was never made. These can be disappointing, but at least prove that a relative was injured. Note too that some ledgers appear to have been destroyed, particularly relating to claimants who lived in south-east England.<\/p>\n\n It\u2019s possible to find out whether there\u2019s a card or other record by searching for them using the serviceman\u2019s full name but there can be problems, especially with common names, both first and surname. The cards were transcribed on digitisation. First names are sometimes abbreviated (\u201cWm\u201d instead of \u201cWilliam\u201d) and ministry clerks sometimes inserted commas in regimental numbers eg \u201c203,002\u201d for \u201c203002\u201d, so it may help your search to add a comma.<\/p>\n\n The cards are the index record for the pension ledgers, although they contain annotations that an experienced clerk could understand and use as a file summary. The ledgers give a soldier\u2019s name, regimental number, rank, date of discharge, year of birth, marital status, address and disabilities. They usually show amendments to pension payments as circumstances change, and there is evidence of some of them continuing to be used into the 1970s. Details of how pensions were calculated can be found on the WFA\u2019s website at westernfrontassociation.com<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n As with many digitisation projects there are errors and misplaced records, but there is a wildcard facility. The use of an asterisk (*) within the name of a person or place will bring up records that may be relevant if you can\u2019t find what you\u2019re looking for because of a mistranscription or an abbreviation.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dj9jqhxgw9833.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2022\/04\/2A874492SZ81G1W3G76F4UHM25BF-1024x839.jpg\")
A Wealth Of Information<\/h5>\n\n
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