Ancestry adds WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards 1939-1948

Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has added the following Second World War collection:

UK, WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards, 1939-1948
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/royalartillerycards/
Source: Royal Artillery Tracer cards, Royal Artillery Museum, Larkhill, Wiltshire, England.

From the collection page:

About UK, WWII Royal Artillery Tracer Cards, 1939-1948

Historical Context

Since its inception in 1716, the Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as 'The Gunners', has served as the artillery arm of the British Army, supplying it's firepower. At its peak during the Second World War, there were over one million men serving in 960 gunner regiments and at the end of the War, the RA was larger than the Royal Navy.

This Collection

This collection comprises cards created to track the movements of soldiers between units within the Royal Artillery during WWII. The role of the Tracer card was to answer the question 'where is that man right now?', saving the burden of administration and searching through many files. Only 'Other Ranks', or in other words those who were not commissioned officers, are included. Please be aware that some cards will include dates outside of 1939-1948.

The following information can be found, where available:

Name
Inferred date of birth
Place and date of death
Place and date of enlistment
Date of discharge
Inferred gender
Regiment and unit
Service rank
Service number

Please Note: In this first release, we have included all records for servicemen with surnames starting A-P. We will be adding all remaining cards in a future update. Please also be aware that not every member of the RA will have a corresponding Tracer Card but this collection will include all surviving cards.

Chris

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