As ever it is easier to trace officers. There are published lists of officers for Queen Anne’s reign, Charles Dalton’s George I’s Army and the army list for 1740. From 1754 there is the annually produced Army List. All these publications list officers by unit, and give a brief account of their service history. All are indexed. There is also an indexed list to officers from 1702–52 at TNA, WO64. For the rank and file, you will need to know in which unit he served, or be prepared to spend much time researching. Regimental pay and muster rolls from 1732–1878 exist in WO12, and description books for 1756–1900 in WO25.

Some men, having left the army, were granted pensions and lived at the Chelsea Hospital, founded in 1691. Soldiers’ Documents for pensioners can be found at TNA, WO97 (1760–1913). These give name, age, birthplace, trade prior to enlistment, service record and reason for discharge. Disability pension records can be found, in date order, for 1715–1882 at TNA, WO116/1–124. Other discharge documents covering 1782–1833 are at WO121/137–22. Muster Rolls (1702–1865) and admissions books (1778–1917) can be found at TNA, WO23. Registers of baptisms (1691–1812), marriages (1691–1765) and burials (1692–1856) are also at TNA, RG4/4330–2 and 4387. Men discharged from 1760 to 1854 can be searched for on TNA’s online catalogue. Deserters are occasionally listed in the marching order books, at TNA in series WO5.

Officers and men of the regiments of Guards are to be found at the Guards’ Museum in London. Records of cavalrymen from 1799–1919 are at TNA.

Soldiers who served at Waterloo can be found online at ancestry.co.uk, which has the Waterloo Medal Roll (37,000 names), and the medal roll for soldiers, 1793–1949. For details of about 9,000 soldiers serving in the Peninsular War of 1807–14, try napoleon-series.org. Rolls of other soldiers from 1656–1888 are on Origins.net, as are births, marriages and deaths of soldiers from the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.

Records of the militia and volunteer forces are dealt with in Chapter 11.

The Royal Navy

As with the army, few personal records survive prior to the Restoration. Ships’ muster books survive from 1667, and these list sailors. They are located at TNA, ADM36. More detailed records commence in 1764, when men’s age and birthplace are given. Ships’ pay books also list sailors. As always, tracing officers is easier, with the quarterly Navy List from 1814. The National Maritime Museum has a typescript listing all naval officers from 1660–1815. The 28,000 men who served at Trafalgar can be searched for on a database, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors. Ancestry.co.uk has a roll of naval officers from 1660–1815.

There is little information about Merchant Navy men prior to 1835, but the LMA has a list of petitions from 8,000 of them and their families from 1787–1854, or they can be searched for on www.originsnetwork.com. Muster rolls of seamen post-1747 are to be found at the Maritime History Archive at Newfoundland University on www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/crewlist.php.

The Royal Household

Monarchs have employed many people in their households. The Royal Archives holds a card index for those employed in the Lord Chamberlain’s and Lord Stewards’ from 1660–1837, and there are lists by Sainty and Burcholz in Officials of the Royal Household, 1660–1837. TNA has a number of archives pertaining to royal servants’ appointments and payments on series LC3 and LC5. Garden and kitchen staff are in series LS. Records for the household prior to 1660 are generally fewer, but for 1523–1696 some are listed separately in tax records, E179.

East India Company

This joint stock company was incorporated in 1660 and established trading posts in India. It also maintained its own armed forces. Its archives are at the British Library and include records of births, marriages and burials of its employees in India. From 1803 printed lists of all its employees were published annually, and these survive. They also have lists of Company ships’ surgeons and ship log books list particulars of men punished.

The Police

Apart from the railway police, the Metropolitan Police Force was Britain’s first police force, founded by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, and is the largest one in terms of personnel, budget and in renown. Originally there were but 3,000 men, who patrolled central London.

The archives for its personnel are to be found at TNA, because it was originally under the control of the Home Secretary, so was part of central government’s records (county forces were under the control of the county magistrates, then the county councillors, and so are often held in county record offices).

There are various sources of information about members of the force. Probably the best method is to begin by using the alphabetical list of men who joined, which covers 1830–57, which has been microfilmed (MEPO 4/333–8). This will give rank, division, dates of appointment and removal, and also the warrant number, which is a key reference for further research.

If the ancestor might have died in service between 1829 and 1889, check MEPO 4/2, which is indexed and gives the cause of death. For the first few thousands of recruits, HO 65/26 is an alphabetical register, 1829–1836. Early recruits from 1829–30 can be located in MEPO 4/31–2, arranged by warrant number. These give the officer’s height and why he was dismissed (often due to drinking on duty). There are also a number of name indexes, compiled using these records, and which are available at TNA.

Before the Metropolitan Police were introduced into outer London parishes, many had their own watch forces, and records often survive of personnel. Lewisham Archives have documents listing their special constables for 1830–2. TNA holds records of the Bow Street Runners, the force predating the Met. Horse Patrol records are in MEPO2/25; for the men of the Foot Patrol, see MEPO4/508. Provincial police forces did not exist until after the 1839 Police Act, so need not concern us here. However, towns often employed watchmen, sometimes discharged servicemen, and urban magistrates’ records may mention the names of men employed on such duties.

Readers will note that these professionals noted are always referred to as ‘he’. This is because there was relatively little scope for working women in these professions until the late nineteenth century at the very earliest.