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Military Records information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy

Berkshire

  • See general information on Military History and Military Records. 
  • Berkshire FHS shop sells books and CDs of  Berkshire military records.
  • Berkshire Militia:
  • Berkshire Yeomanry  - First raised in 1794 to counter the threat of invasion from Revolutionary France, used to counter social unrest in Berkshire in early 1800s, members served in the Boer War, WW1, WW2, Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan. 
  • The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) amalgamated in 1959 with the Wiltshire Regiment to form the Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment which in turn amalgamated in 1994 with the Gloucestershire Regiment to form the Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment, which again amalgamated in 2007 with the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, the Light Infantry and the Royal Greenjackets to form The Rifles.
    • The Rifles Museum (the Wardrobe) holds all the records for the Royal Berkshire Regiment (and its predecessors the 48th and 66th Regiments) and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire). It is the only regimental museum in the country to have its war diaries on site and available to researchers.  Much of their archive is searchable online.  You can search for individual soldiers in Collections and check out their wartime service history in the online war diaries. The information presented here is that of the actual diaries and totals almost 16,500 records covering 15 battalions during World War 1 and the 8 battalions during World War 2. Usefully, you can use text search to find, for example, all records where another unit is mentioned, a particular place or even a person, although sadly Other Ranks rarely get mentioned by name in World War 1 diaries. See also article in Berkshire Family Historian, Sep 2007, Vol 31, page 24.
    • 66th Berkshire Regiment, 1887, J Percy Groves, a brief history 1758 to 1881, free download from Internet Archive.  See also Maiwand Lion below.
    • The War Service of the 1/4 Royal Berkshire Regiment (T. F.)  [in WW1] by CRMF Cruttwell, free download from Project Gutenberg.
    • 2nd Battalion The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) veterans' website, mainly about the WW2 Burma theatre.  
    • 8th battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment during WW1 - research by Andrew Tatham. 
    • Royal Berkshire Regiment 1743-1914 and Royal Berkshire Regiment 1914-1959, Martin McIntyre, Tempus Publishing, 2006 and 2012, available from Berkshire FHS. See review in Berkshire Family Historian, Mar 2014, Vol 37, page 30. 
    • History of the Royal Berkshire Militia (now 3rd battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment), Emma Elizabeth Thoyts, 1897, 349 pages, is available from Reading Central Library and a free download from the Internet Archive.    
  • World War 1:
  • World War 2:  
    • Some WW2 records are held by the RBA.  Highlights include a scrapbook from Oakfield Hostel in Wokingham for children evacuated from London, 1940-1951 (D/EX1362/1), a service register for Remenham parish annotated with commentary on the war, 1939-1945 (ref. D/P99/1B/4), and local government efforts for the home front, such as Maidenhead Borough’s Holidays at Home and Entertainment Sub-Committees, 1943, 1945 (ref. M/AC2/3/2).  
    • Berkshire Airfields in the Second World War by Robin J Brooks describes the history of each airfield, highlights some of the major operations carried out from them, and their overall contribution to the war effort. 
    • Prisoner of War camps in Berkshire: Winter Quarter Camp, Ascot; Lodge Farm Camp, Baydon, Newbury;  Mortimer Camp, Stratfield Mortimer;  Stanbury House Camp, Stanbury Park, Spencers Wood, Reading;  Basildon House, Lower Basildon, Pangbourne; Durnell's Farm Camp (Magazine Camp), Central Ordnance Depot, Didcot; Crookham Common Camp, Thatcham, Newbury.  From  Churchill's Unexpected Guests: Prisoners of War in Britain in World War II by Sophie Jackson, 2010, ISBN: 9780752455655.  See also Wikipedia. 
    • Ascot Internment Camp No. 7 - in Swinley forest near Ascot West rail station to intern upto 700 enemy aliens and British fascist sympathisers classified medium risk.  Closed in 1943 when it became the Winter Quarter POW camp, above.  Remembering Wartime - Ascot and Sunningdale 1939-1945 by Christine Weightman, 2006, ISBN 0 9537945 2 0 contains a brief description of the camp.  See also Wikipedia.  
    • Bombing of Reading and Newbury in 1943.
    • Through Their Eyes, from the RBA describes how the people of Berkshire prepared for the WW2, adapted to unimaginable change and finally celebrated peace, through the eyes of residents, including the evacuees who made this county their temporary home; the air raid wardens who protected citizens; the troops who trained here; the Home Guard members who defended towns from invasion; and the partygoers who took to the streets to celebrate on VE Day.
    • Reading at War, Stuart Hylton ISBN-10: 0750912162, ISBN-13: 978-0750912167, The History Press, 1996, "An illustrated insight into the realities of wartime life in the town of Reading, which draws on contemporary accounts from local newspapers to provide examples of both heroism and tragedy, in addition to details of the bureaucracy that developed as Britain went into war, and information on the everyday struggle of life during the conflict"
  • Berkshire Victoria Cross holders: 
  • War Memorials
    • Berkshire FHS have produced the Berkshire War Memorials CD edition 2 which holds transcriptions and photographs of nearly 900 war memorials ie. nearly all of those in pre-1974 Berkshire, some with photographs.  It covers not only World Wars 1 and 2 but also others, including the Boer War, Korea, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan.
    • Berkshire war memorials list by the IWM.
    • The Cemetery Junction War Graves website (previously Reading Remembrance Trust) has photographs, transcriptions and short biographies of many of those who lost their lives as a result of WW1 and are buried or commemorated on graves in the Old Reading Cemetery, Cemetery Junction, Reading.  It also includes the Alfred Sutton School War Memorial.
    • The names on some Berkshire war memorials are available from Roll of Honour.  
    • You can also search online photograph sites (see Historical Photographs under History for details) eg, this one in East Ilsley.  
    • Berkshire War Memorials provides an online inventory of war memorials in Berkshire.
    • The West Berkshire War Memorials Project: online photographs and transcriptions of the war memorials in West Berkshire.  
    • The Maiwand Lion war memorial in Forbury Gardens, Reading for the Afghan War of 1880:
    • Burghfield War Memorial: article in Berkshire Family Historian, June 2019, Vol 42, page 26 lists those of the parish who died during WW1 and 2, including those recorded on the memorial, with additional historical information.
    • Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) memorial in Reading is one of the country’s best regarded memorials to volunteers who served in the International Brigades. It was moved to its present location in 2015. At least 16 people from, or with a strong connection to, Reading are known to have gone to Spain to join the International Brigades. They fought as soldiers, treated the wounded and drove ambulances. Three were killed. In Reading itself, many more people helped raise funds for refugees and to collect for food aid to go to Spain.
    • See also Cemeteries. 
  • Philip Johnston's History of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
  • The Museum of Berkshire Aviation has, among other things, a list of military airfields in Berkshire.

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