Summary heading
B2455 Personnel Dossiers for First Australian Imperial Force Ex-Service Members, Lexicographical series.
Function and purpose
This series consists of service personnel dossiers for Australians who served in the following entities during World War One:
- Australian Imperial Force (AIF)
- Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF)
- Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train (RANBT)
- Australian Flying Corps (AFC)
- Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)
Depot records for personnel who did not go overseas but instead served in Australia can also be found in B2455.
Where an individual served in both World Wars One and Two, their WWI dossier was often incorporated onto their WWII service file. When this happened, usually only the original envelope containing the WWI dossier remains in B2455. The main World War Two army service personnel file series is B883.
Records relating to wartime service with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) are not included in B2455. Service cards for navy officers can be located in Series A6769 and for petty officers and men in A6770.
Records in B2455 began to be created following the outbreak of war between Britain (including Australia) and Germany in August 1914. The earliest records in the series appear to be the recruitment papers for members of Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, which was despatched to German New Guinea later in August.
In October 1914, an organisation called the Base Records Office was established in Melbourne to take responsibility for the growing number of military personnel records. Before the embarkation of a unit, originals and duplicates of attestation papers, unit orders, nominal rolls and other documents were forwarded to Base Records Office. This office was also responsible for handling all queries relating to members of the above-mentioned entities. These queries could relate to such things as casualties, wills, medals, pensions, mail and personal effects during the War and for some time afterwards. Base Records Office also had intermediary records offices in London, France and Egypt that collected and kept information on service personnel. These offices closed at the end of the War, and records that were not destroyed were transferred to Melbourne.
The dossiers in B2455 were used by Base Records Office to help administer movements and pay of military personnel. Because they were essentially administrative files, these dossiers only contain the essentials of a person’s wartime service, and do not provide an everyday account of events in their military service.
The dossiers usually contain two important documents:
1. The Attestation Paper. This document was completed by the person on enlistment, and provides the following basic biographical information:
- - full name
- - place of birth
- - age on enlistment
- - marital status
- - religion
- - employment / trade details
- - next-of-kin details
- - place and date of enlistment; and initial unit posting
- - prior military service
2. The Service and Casualty Form (otherwise known as Form B103). This provides rudimentary details about an individual’s service and casualty history in Australia and overseas. Specific information can include:
- Movements and transfers between units (including names of troop ships)
- Promotions and awarding of important decorations and medals
- Details of illnesses and injuries, and treatment received
- When and where a soldier was killed, and basic burial details.
Some files contain other miscellaneous military documents and correspondence, including:
- notification to next-of-kin of death and injury
- letters concerning a soldier’s whereabouts
- details of awards and medals
- pay information
- wills
- information about wartime marriages
- burial information
The extent to which such information can be found on the dossiers varies greatly though. This is because the dossiers were subject to extensive culling in the 1950s by the Department of the Army. The intention of this was to remove from them any material that did not provide an essential record of service.
After World War Two, the records in B2455 were transferred to the Central Army Records Office (CARO). Whilst under their management, later correspondence was sometimes placed on these dossiers. This was usually of an administrative nature, and can relate to matters such as access to the records for Repatriation purposes and genealogical inquiries. In accordance with the Archives Act, this correspondence is only available for public release once it reached the open access period.
Related legislation
Using the series
The series is arranged alphabetically, from AAGARD to ZYGAS, then by given name/s. This is how the records were arranged and controlled before they were transferred to the National Archives, and it appears that each file was known by the surname and given name/s of the person it contains information about.
To make it easier for people to locate the right dossier, each item’s original name-based title has been enhanced in RecordSearch with the following additional identifying information: service number (SERN), place of birth (POB), place of enlistment (POE), and next of kin (NOK). This additional information however does not form part of the item title for citation purposes.
Service numbers of persons who served in WWI can be obtained from the World War One Nominal Roll, available on-line via the Australian War Memorial’s website: http://www.awm.gov.au/database/133/index.asp
Language of material
Physical characteristics
Dossiers in B2455 generally consist of loose papers housed either in original AIF covers or inside the attestation papers. All dossiers have been repackaged into archival quality folders to provide maximum protection.
System of arrangement and control
The series is arranged lexicographically by surname, ranging from AAGARD to ZYGAS, then by given name/s or initials. This preserves the way in which the records had been arranged and controlled prior to being transferred to the National Archives: each dossier having been housed in an envelope / slip cover onto which a surname and given name/s were transcribed (sometimes with other identifying information such as service and unit numbers) from the attestation papers.
Relationships with other records
Sometimes more detailed information can be found on other types of records to help expand on the basic information contained on B2455 service dossiers. Several potential sources exist:
Records held by the National Archives:
- Other Army Service records. The National Archives holds other types of service records that may provide additional information, including certain pay records for South Australian enlistees (Series D2994). People interested in exploring this possibility should consult the Army Service Records Fact Sheet (Fact Sheet 136) for further information. Copies are available in National Archives Reading Rooms and online at: http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/publications/fact-sheets/fs136.aspx
- Court-martial records. The National Archives holds court-martial records dating back to 1901 in Series A471. Court-martial records for members of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force are to be found in Series G265.
Records held by the Australian War Memorial (AWM):
- Unit Records. These can provide more detailed information about individual army units, what they did and where.
- Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Files. These can provide more information in cases where enquiries were made about persons wounded, missing in action, killed in action or made prisoners of war. A database of these files can be searched online via the Australian War Memorial website: http://www.awm.gov.au/database/1drl428.asp
- The AWM also holds some other types of records, such as those relating to honours and awards.
Basic information about burial locations for World War One soldiers who died overseas can be found via the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: www.cwgc.org.
Finding aids
When originally transferred to the National Archives, there was no complete listing or control records for this series. This reflects the way in which the records had been controlled alphabetically using surname then given name/s.
Access conditions
Series history
Provenance
Immediate source of acquisition
Custodial history
B2455 was transferred from the Central Army Records Office in Melbourne to the National Archives in Canberra in August 1993. Since then, the series has been subject to considerable archival work. This has been aimed at both increasing the public accessibility of the series and ensuring its proper preservation for future generations to come. The dossiers have been rehoused in archival quality folders and boxes, and digitised so that they can be viewed on-line.
Quantity in agency custody
Disposal history
As mentioned above, the dossiers were subject to extensive culling by the Department of the Army in the 1950s. Material that did not provide an essential record of service was targeted for removal from the files. As such, the amount of information available on these files varies greatly.
Publication note
Additional information
End notes
Sources