Pension Record Cards – what information is included
The Pension Record Cards for WW1 are in the care of the Western Front Association and available online in two places. Firstly, available free to Western Front Association members via the associations’ website. And secondly on Fold3 a sub-site of Ancestry – this is a pay per view site and as such has a subscription on its own or additional to Ancestry.
The WFA has over the past few weeks had a small army of volunteers viewing every one of the thousands of Pension Record Cards looking for ‘alias’ soldiers. There is a surprising number of soldiers who served under an alias.
What information is there on these cards? On every card is the soldiers’ name, his serial number and regiment along with various case numbers and re-directions to other military paperwork. Along with the change of regiments and service numbers and rank. There could be quite a few words struck through.
I want to tell you about what you in the majority of cases you may find.
The cards change in style and space for information varies. For this purpose, I’ll take what I call a ‘fully loaded’ card and explain what information can be available.
With a Service Record not being available where would you look for personal information? Until recently, not a lot of places.
Let us go back to the information held on the Pension Cards. The date of death is important as a search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website is then possible which will give a place of burial or commemoration.
A cause of death is always of interest and in these cards, the cause of death has been in some case quite blunt. Some causes of death include: drowned (including the name of vessel), pneumonia, cholera, cancer, as a result of an accident, epilepsy, gunshot wound to neck – self-inflicted and the list goes on.
Section of Pension Record Card
Section of Pension Record Card
A relation is information well worth having and could include a parent, wife (widow) other relation or guardian each with an address. You may be surprised to find that elusive wife or parent with an address in America, Canada or Australia – another avenue for you to follow You could also find that the named relation died or remarried and additional information is included. If there was a re-marriage there may be the included the new husbands’ name, occupation and date of marriage.
Section of Pension Record Card
Children – a full list of children including dates of birth and when their pension allotment expired. You could find that the children have been placed in the care of the Board of Guardians in various townships up and down the country.
One of the interesting bits of information is the pension awarded and how long for. In some cases, it is a matter of shillings for a limited time. While a small number include the pension will be for life. Another interesting item and again the military tell it as it is – if the couple were separated, the information you may not be privy to as it has never been spoken about – until now! The military could be quite brutal in the way relations were treated.
If a soldier was a prisoner of war this information could either be stamped or handwritten across the card.
There are a few cards, and I do mean a few cards where the information continues on the reverse and all adds to what you have already found.
When you disregard the possibility of a detailed account of a soldier in a newspaper account and the lack of a service record, there are not any records sets that include such useful and interesting information as the Pension Record Cards. Where else would you know a cause of death (KIA or DOW is not always precise), if a wife remarried or the couple separated or even a wife’s new address or country? You may also find additional children, step-children or a couple was not married.
So much information can be found and add to what you know about your soldier(s).