Documents detailing the personal experiences of millions of people who served in the First World War are to be made available online.

The Ancestry.co.uk website has teamed up with The National Archives to make service and pension records of solidiers who served in the British Army between 1914 and 1920 available online.

Personal and historical records including census results have been gathered from more than 8,000 reels of transcribed microfilm at The National Archives.

Users will be able to find details about people's former occupations, physical appearance, discipline records, regimental movements, postings, next of kin, and military career histories and, in some cases, the manner of their deaths.

Around five million soldiers from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland fought in the First World War, but German bombing raids in 1940 destroyed around 60 per cent of service records that were held.

The surviving records, many badly damaged and known as the 'burnt documents', were conserved by The National Archives and filmed. Although they can be viewed on microfilm at The National Archives, it is hoped the digitisation process will make this information available to more people who can't visit the institution in person.

The records, known as the WO363 British Army Service records and the WO364 British Army Pension records, will be put online in phases.

The first to go online from today are pension records for about 100,000 soldiers. These will include medical reports and documents pertaining to discharges and pensions granted for disability.

By the end of 2008, Ancestry.co.uk hopes to have records for 2.5 million former soldiers online.

Tony Robinson, who has been involved in the project, spoke at the launch event, held in the Cabinet War Rooms in Westminster, and said the aim of the project was to help people understand more fully what their forebears went through.

Because so many returned from war too traumatised to speak about their experiences, he added, this would allow people to "reclaim the history of the First World War".

Digitally transcribing the records already online has taken teams of researchers five months. To get the full records of 2.5 million soldiers that will be available will take until the end of 2008.

William Spencer, a senior military specialist at The National Archives in Kew, underlined the importance of these records saying they were not just military history, but social history from one of the most significant periods of the 20th century.

The records can be searched on the website ancestry.co.uk either on a per-view basis or by subscribing to Ancestry.co.uk for £80 per year, or £10 for one month.
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