Then a Soldier

History has shown that sexual violence can occur anywhere, in any conflict. That is why we are working around the world to prevent this from happening. A number of our projects focus on education and training which will help prevent sexual violence by changing cultural norms and attitudes. We are also training military and police personnel in sexual violence issues. They are often the first person a survivor sees, and so their response needs to take into account the needs of women, men, girls and boys.

Rape and murder spread terror among civilians, tear families apart, destroy communities and, in some cases, change the ethnic composition of the next generation. What are nations doing to definitively stop a culture of impunity for these crimes? We all need to work better to ensure that provisions are in place to bring perpetrators to account. We also need to work harder on ensuring education and training is gender inclusive and includes steps to prevent these atrocities from happening.

This Protocol is used to help those on the ground collect evidence, investigate sexual violence crimes and support survivors. Governments around the world are taking steps to ensure those responsible for these crimes are brought to account. For example in Croatia and Kosovo, the Governments have revised their laws in order to allow survivors of sexual violence to access compensation, state support and benefits. Progress has been made in Africa in the criminalization of rape to women?

Sexual violence in conflict affects countries around the world. It is a global issue that requires a global response.

I am pleased that as a result of the Global Summit to end sexual violence, Governments in many countries have made progress in tackling sexual violence. In Colombia the Government has trained over members of the armed forces on gender based violence prevention. In Iraq, we have seen the mapping of legislation to identify barriers that prevent perpetrators from being held to account.

And in Croatian and Kosovo the Government has revised their laws in order to allow victims of sexual violence from the conflict to access compensation, state support and benefits. Sometimes mass violence is used to deliberately infect women with HIV or to make them unable to procreate. The effects of sexual violence continue even after the war has officially ended. Women have unwanted pregnancies, suffer from sexually transmitted infections and are marginalized as victims.

How can we prevent these situations? Sexual violence in conflict causes extreme physical and psychological trauma. I have met survivors who have shared their story with me and have explained the deep emotional pain they live through every day. Our job is to make sure that they, and the children born of rape, get the medical, psychosocial and other support that they need to help them rebuild their lives. Over the coming years, the UK will focus on ending the stigma suffered by survivors and support their reintegration into their families and communities.

At the same time, it is vital to stop the culture of impunity for these crimes. We need to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to account and that others know that sexual violence crimes will not go unpunished.

You believe that using mass rape in wars destroys the whole of humanity and all moral boundaries. It is a bloody path which often makes post-war reconciliation impossible. Can you explain why rape has become such a large obstacle in the task of building peace? Sexual violence destroys families and communities and leaves long lasting effects. We know that survivors can be ostracised from society, treated differently by family members, cut off from support networks and denied justice. This can have long-lasting effects on community reconciliation and stabilisation.

Tackling sexual violence is central to conflict prevention and peace-building worldwide which is why we all need to be involved in ending sexual violence in conflict. Survivors need to know that we, the international community, will do all we can to bring those responsible to account. They also need to know that we will support them as they reintegrate back into their families and communities. This is especially so if he was, like most soldiers, not discharged to pension. There are various ways to approach this research but the following steps provide a logical order to follow assuming the soldier did not die in service:.

Search for a pension record see sections 4 and 5. Search for the soldier in muster rolls and pay lists see section 6. In the absence of a pension record and without a known date of discharge the best place to start a search is in the muster rolls and pay lists. You will need to know either where in the world he served at any point during his service or at least one of the regiments he served with to make a start.

Search for a record of discharge see section 7. There are still, however, records which you can search for. If an individual received an army pension there is a better than average chance that there will be a record for him. These were hospitals set up, in and respectively, to administer army pensions and look after army pensioners.

The hospitals in Ireland and England reflected the separate army establishments for the two countries, which did not become joined until the Act of Union in From the late 17th century, soldiers who left the army with a disabling injury, as invalids or after completing an agreed term of service, were entitled to a pension from one of these two army veterans hospitals. In December the payment of Kilmainham out-pensions was taken over by Chelsea Hospital, whilst in-pensioners remained in Kilmainham until , when the last transferred to Chelsea.

Some ex-soldiers became residents of these veterans hospitals and were known as in-pensioners. Most, however, were out-pensioners , receiving a pension administered by the hospitals but not actually residing in them. Both in-pensioners and out-pensioners are often referred to simply as pensioners, or sometimes Chelsea pensioners. To be eligible for admission as an in-pensioner a man had to be a life pensioner of the army that is, in receipt of a service or disability pension , aged 55 or more unless in receipt of a disability pension and free from the responsibility of supporting a wife or children.

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It is not always possible to find this out other than by looking for a pension record but a useful alternative source is the census. Censuses from to are available to search and view online. For more details on how to access and search for censuses, see our guide to census records. Many of the most significant series of British Army pension records are now available to view online see section 2. Some records of this type, however, are not available online.

Records of payments made to pensioners living overseas, whether in British colonies or foreign countries, are held in series WO 22 and WO 23, available to search and download on Findmypast. Select WO 22 and WO 23 from the series list and, to narrow your search further, place a country name in the additional keywords field:.

Though the appearance of individuals on muster rolls and pay lists are not determiners of whether or not they received a pension, they are particularly useful records for men who were not discharged to pension as they provide the enlistment date, movements and discharge date of all soldiers in the British Army. Refer to the British Army muster rolls and pay lists c.

For to , browse WO 16 to find the relevant regiment or regimental district. Trying to trace an individual soldier in this way can be time-consuming, with no guarantee of success. The registers are not complete but they are a useful potential source of information. If a soldier died in service the principal personnel records that were retained for soldiers those used for pension purposes are less likely to exist.

There are, however, some records that were created as a result of a soldier dying in service:. Until ordnance troops, which included the Royal Artillery, were the responsibility of the Board of Ordnance, not the War Office. There are therefore some series of records specifically for Royal Artillery personnel. Supplementary records of services are preserved for soldiers in the Royal Artillery, to , and the Royal Horse Artillery, to , in WO Artillery pensions were paid by the Ordnance Office until , when the Royal Hospital Chelsea took over.

The records are in the following series:. Use the advanced search in our catalogue to search by unit for soldiers recruited locally within South Africa in:. When this happened, then pre record of service including Boer War is more likely to be among First World War service records.

You can search and download campaign medal rolls WO at Ancestry. Except for the Guards regiments and the Household Cavalry, regimental museums do not hold records of service of their men and officers, although they often hold other records which can be useful to people researching their military ancestors. Records of the Guards regiments Coldstream, Grenadier, Irish, Scots and Welsh Guards are accessible by writing to the regimental headquarters of each regiment. Some of these records were destroyed by enemy bombing whilst stored in the Guards chapel during the Second World War.

Microfilm copies of WO see section 2.

Those from to are available on Ancestry. Regiments and Corps of the British Empire and Commonwealth William Spencer, Army Records: For quick pointers Tuesday to Saturday