World War One

This list represents a small part of the extensive material relating to the First World War held at Hampshire Archives and Local Studies.

Theatres of war

  • Accounts of battles and manoeuvres, including: siege of Verdun, (9M68/346-408); defence of Antwerp, (38M49/G4/22); the Somme (92M91/5/31); landing at Gallipoli (115M88/F25/172); siege of Kut-el-Amara, (71M88W/3); conditions in the trenches, (36A01/B5); contemporary footage of battle sites (Armentieres, AV335/10/V1; Ypres, AV335/11/V1; Arras, AV335/12/V1)
  • Documents relating to war on other fronts, including: Mesopotamia and Kut-el-Amara (71M88W); Salonika (23M68/143-147); Egypt and Palestine (47M91W/Q3/6/3)
  • Documents relating to war at sea, including: papers of Richard F Phillimore and his exploits in the Dardanelles and Gallipoli (115M88/Z6); naval journal with an account of the Battle of the Falkland Islands, Dec 1914 (115M88/F25/164)
  • Documents relating to war in the air, including: account of German aeroplane brought down by British aviators, Jul 1918 (36A01/B5/9-10); contemporary footage of the battle of Jutland (AV296/1/V1)
  • Maps, including: peninsula of Gallipoli and the Asiatic Shore to the Dardanelles, 1915 (26M79/PZ16); south east of Becquigny, Upper Somme, showing gun emplacements and ‘areas barraged by 2nd LGs and 6th and 46th MGCs’, nd (15M84/5/13/2); approaches to the following German ports: Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven, Kiel, Swinemunde, Danzig and Pillan (115M88/N19)

Military - regimental

  • Regimental journals, comprises: The Kings’ Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle (356.1); Rifle Brigade Chronicle (356.1); The Hants Regimental Journal (356.1); Hampshire Regimental Journal, 1916-1918 (PER414/12-30)
  • Regimental histories, includes: The Royal Hampshire Regiment, volume 2, 1914-1918, by C T Atkinson, 1952 (356.11); The History of the Rifle Brigade in the War of 1914-1918, by M C Berkeley, 1927 (356.1)
  • Royal Green Jackets Regimental archive, includes war diaries, personal diaries, photographs, official accounts of active service, financial accounts, lists of personnel, orders, reports, correspondence, maps, music, scrapbooks, sketches, memorial service details (170A12W). NB: list of King's Royal Rifle Corps documents is available through online catalogue.  We will add documents relating to Rifle Brigade, Green Jacket Brigade, and Royal Green Jackets during 2013

Military - personnel

We hold a wide range of material about individual participants. Including photographs, autograph books, wills, personal papers, memorials, and articles in parish magazines.

  • Newspapers, for reports on areas of conflict, troops stationed locally, casualty lists, letters from the front, obituaries, etc.  We hold: Hampshire Chronicle (on microfilm); Hampshire Observer (on microfilm); Hants and Berks Gazette (6M82/5-8) (not 1915); Salisbury and Winchester Journal (116M86/82-85); Andover Advertiser (108A00/54-55) (1914-1915 only); Basingstoke News (Hampshire Observer) (26M70/Z2/11-12) (1914-1915 only)
  • Rolls of honour/lists of men who served. Over 50 rolls of honour, including: Winchester War Service Register (940.467); National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918 for Portsmouth (940.54) and Southampton (940.3) and Hampshire Regiment (940.46741); Muster roll, 1st Battalion Hampshire Volunteer Regiment, 1916-1917 (205M85/1); London and South Western Railway registers of serving/released employees (104A02/B7/1-2)
  • Prisoners of war, including copy memos, telegrams, correspondence, reports and statements taken from prisoners of war on both sides (5M79/A); report on the 'Transport of British Prisoners of War to Germany, Aug-Dec 1914', 1918 (38M49/F4/38); list of camps and hospitals where British prisoners are interned, Jul 1915 (38M49/E12/21)
  • Hospital records, including photographs of hospital and patients at Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley (92M91/2) and personal papers (92M91/5)
  • Burials and memorials, including: Netley Military cemetery registers of graves (CD29); register of burials at Magdalen (alias Morn Hill) Cemetery, Winchester (on microfiche).  Numerous examples of war memorial transcriptions and faculties to erect memorial tablets in churches
  • Letters and diaries, including letters from William Wickham Ogilvy, 20th Hussars who died on active service in France, 1918 (38M49/E5/123,124); letters from Daniel Bradby, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who died in 1917 (46A06/A8/10); letter home from Jimmy Blair, forming his final will, 1918 (5M62/39 page 530)
  • Poetry, including poetry written at the front and in hospital and items relating to Rupert Brooke (38M49/G4/22), Wilfred Owen (AV334/1/V1) and Edward Thomas (AV18/228/V1); `Gloucestershire Friends, Poems from a German Prison Camp', Lieutenant F W Harvey, 1917 (38M49/E12/22)

The Home Front

  • National Registration forms provided local authorities with information from all persons aged between 15 and 65 who were not members of the Armed Forces. We hold rare survivals of the forms for Droxford RDC (92A02/A1), Alresford RDC (45M72/Z1-Z10), Romsey Borough (4M92/U3/1-2 & 4M92/U7/5/1), parishes of Exton (86M71/PX3) and Sopley (53M80/PZ5)
  • Exemption from military service, comprising Borough of Romsey register of cases under the Military Service Act, 1916, giving details of those seeking exemption from military service (4M92/U7/5/7)
  • Conscientious objectors, comprising Winchester prison register of prisoners giving details of men imprisoned as conscientious objectors and also mutineers, deserters and those disobeying orders, 1915-1919 (88M96W/G1/2-3)
  • Letters and diaries, including: Bonham Carter letters (38M49/G4); diaries kept by Lady Laura Ridding (9M68/65-67) and letters from 2nd Earl of Selborne letters, (9M68/276-530); photocopy diary of Miss Sidney Margaret Courtney of Winchester (COPY/525/1)

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