Does anyone have access to a Forces War Records account?

Question

Hello fellow Wikitreers!

I'm looking for anyone with access to a Forces War Records account who might be able to look up two records for me. I've been trying (with not a lot of success) to find information on a potential ancestor, David Hammond, who was a Private in the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers). I did locate something that might be him - a David Hammond came up in record search results on the Forces War Records site, with two matches around the time frame that my David would have been in the service.

The only issue is I don't have a paid account to this site, and since I only need the two records, I don't know if it's worth it to spend the money! I'm currently at university, so the funds to gain access to these records are not readily available (if I had them, I'd spend them in a flash!)

This leads to my question: is there anyone who would be able to help a fellow researcher out? If you have an account on this site, would you be able to look up the files for me? If not, I understand, but I would be very appreciative if this was possible! Please let me know.

The information available to me on the records is as follows:

Name: David Hammond

Service Number: 1016

Rank: Private

Record Year(s): 1861, 1871

Unit: 2nd Battalion, 7th Foot (Royal Fusiliers)

Thank you again for any help you can offer!

- Gillian

Comments

Have you tried Findmypast and Ancestry? Both of them have better military records than what I remember from when I took a brief look at Forces War Records a couple of years ago.

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The records appear to be on Findmypast as well, but sadly they also require a paid subscription - currently, I only have access to Ancestry, but the records that I'm looking for are not available there.

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It's worth registering an email address with FindMyPast as they regularly have "Free Fridays", which actually last for three days (Fri, Sat, Sun), they are very useful for finding records not held by Ancestry (to which I have a fully paid account).

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Thank you for the suggestion, Steve! I'll register today

Answer 1

I recently took out a months subscription to Forces War Records. I will not be renewing it because there is not much information there that cannot be found elsewhere.
I looked up David Hammond. There are only 2 records of him:

1, First Name: David - Surname: Hammond - Rank: Private - Service Number: 1016 - Duty Location: Gibraltar - Service: British Army - Regiment: 2nd Battalion 7th Foot (Royal Fusiliers) - Archive Reference: WO 12/2550 -  Collection: 1861 Worldwide Army Index

2.  First Name: David - Surname: Hammond - Information: Date army index started 1/04/1871 - More Information: - Date army index ended 30/06/1871 - Rank: Private - Service Number: 1016 - Duty Location: Portland - Regiment: 2nd Battalion 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment of Foot - Archive Reference: WO 12/2560 - Collection: 1871 Worldwide Army Index

Comments

Similar to the experience I had with them Joan. Double check that you are not set up for automatic renewal. I had missed one of the boxes that needed to be ticked or unticked.

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Thanks Lynda. Wlll do.

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Thank you very much, Joan!

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You are welcome Gillian.

Answer 2

This is his 1871 record from findmypast. There is no image attached, but it does give a National Archives reference if you want to follow up there.

Comments

Thank you very much!

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Are you able to view the transcription?

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Upon clicking the link, it just directs me to the "Buy a Subscription" page - would you be able to copy the reference number?

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National Archives WO 12/2560.

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Thank you!

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Emma, Thanks for the best answer star.