Forces War Records as the name suggests lists millions of records specifically related to the military. As they are a niche site they can cater far better than the general sites to military records and with each name record you generally get a lot of supplementary data, such as information on the unit they individual may have served in, or the ship they served on, information on medals awarded, battles fought in etc.
No site lists every individual ever born and Forces War Records is no different. However, they do have a very good reason for this. Approximately 50 million or so individuals have served since the 1800’s, the British and German did a good job at destroying lots of records in the 2nd World War. At last count they had about 20 million actual name records.
If we have one criticism of the site, it is that it can take a while to drill down to the specific person you are looking for before registering if you don’t have their service number. It’s a small complaint I know, but not many sites deal with this very well IMHO as it’s a difficult task to create a single form that can be used to search many different records which all have different levels of information in them.
Genealogy Website Reviews thoughts: Well worth a subscription.
Genealogy Website Reviews 
I’ve used this site and found most of my mums side of the family!
I’ve just signed up for a month.
Only problem is it doesn’t tell you which records you’ve looked at, in a column of 20 you have to remember which one you were on.
Out of three members of my family I know were in the army I found two.
I tried the site and wish I’d found it sooner. Wouldve saved me a fortune with Ancestry!
I’ve also used this site. Whilst some of the records I looked at I could have got elsewhere, they do also have collections that I haven’t seen anywhere else, so well worth a look. I would happily recommend this site.
I was also a member. I found it a little bit hard to search as they had so many records, but that’s better than not enough! I found a ton of info about my great grandfather so I would recommend this site.
looking for william robert nathan hallas he marry my grandmother ELLA SOUTHALL . THANKYOU from Pauline .
Hi Pauline,
Ellen Southall and William Hallas were my great grandparents too. Who are your parents?
Kind regards,
Sue
Forces War Records Review
I too have used this site and whilst I couldn’t find my WW2 ancestors ( I believe those records are still held by the MOD) they did have more on my WW1 ancestors than Ancestry.
I have just paid to use Forces War Records and am very impressed.
Whilst they don’t have original images that some other sites have on some records, they do have a lot of supplementary data you won’t get elsewhere as well as exclusive collections you don’t see elsewhere, but more than that when I struggled to understand some acronyms on data I was looking at their experts were brilliant in helping me take down a couple of brickwalls!
Well worth the money for the expertise alone. 🙂
Yes! Finally someone writes about kirning.
I am writing to see if ther is anyway of getting my grandfather’s medals as he served in Burma and India. His army number is 7020815. He served with Royal Ulster Rifles. And then Royal inniskillen fusilers . His name is Edward Lavery. Lived in Mora Co.Down Northern Ireland.DOB 12.11.1921 many thanks Sam lavery
I have been hoping to find out about a West Indian soldier, he was from Jamaica and he was Jewish. So I presumed that he was in the West Indian aregiment: When I found out about him, I was a child and of course I did not know anything about the war, or soldiering until of much later in my life. When I knew of him I was a bout 9 years old, I could not even asked him anything about his time in the war, all that I can remember is that he had lost a leg. I would like to know something abut him if at all possible, he was my great grandfather. Can you help. Thank you, in advance.
Your Sincerely
Neville Buckle
Well I was wondering how to get copies of medals also. John McCaughey served in Glasgow, India and Afghanistan for 20 years….lost 4 boys and one girl before at Umballa in India he had a live child, George. He left in 1887, to come to Queensland.
I am looking for information on my mother’s uncle Captain David McGregor, Argyall & Sutherland Highlanders K/A 24/09/1918 at Battle of Epehy near Perone and buried in small cemetery near Perone. Can you help, please?
I have a complaint. I subscribed here hoping to get more info on both my British and Australian relations who fought in wars. I do already have some on my Australian including their service numbers but no matter how I played around with your search and advanced search I could not single down to one of my australian relatives I only got lots of names together. I know there is info out there as ancestry and heratige both have it but I didn’t want to pay their fees for info on 6 people. I havnt tried my British relations yet.
Too many names on here!