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Overview

Anglo-Turkish force

The Crimean War began as a religious feud, and was fought on the Crimean peninsular by a Franco-British alliance supporting Ottoman Turks against Russian forces.

Did you know?

• The infamous Charge of the Light Brigade occurred on 25 October 1854 during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean conflict.
• Thousands died of cholera during the siege of Sebastopol, which ended the war.
• This was the first 'media' war, with newspaper correspondents sending back critical reports.
• Gallantry medals, including the Victoria Cross, were awarded for the first time to British troops - each subsequent medal being forged from the metal of a captured Russian cannon.

Military service and pension records

If your ancestor was in the army during the Crimean War, you should look for his service or pension records. These are stored at The National Archives, and contain details of where the soldier was born, his age at enlistment, and discharge information.

For further information on service and pension records:

To search TNA's catalogue by name:

• [Research tip: restrict your search to series WO97]

Separate records exist for officers.

For further information:

For further information:

Continuous service records for sailors began in 1853, and you might find pension material for naval ratings, warrant officers and commissioned officers. These records are stored at The National Archives.

For further information:

Records of over 600,000 ratings who joined the Royal Navy between 1853 and 1923 can be searched online at .

Military musters, pay lists and official histories

Many soldiers were not discharged to pension, so you may have to look for some of the names you are researching in the British army's quarterly or monthly pay lists and musters. These records do not contain much personal information, but you can compile a complete career history if you know the regiment in which a particular person served.

For further information on musters and pay lists:

For further information about locating which regiment your ancestor was in:

Similarly, sailors moved from vessel to vessel and you can trace their movements via ships' pay lists and musters, provided you know the name of at least one ship on which they served. These are stored at The National Archives.

For further information on ships' musters and pay lists:

Newspaper reports

If you want to find out more information about a particular campaign or battle, you should look in contemporary newspapers for reports and general coverage of the war. From the Crimean War onwards, national papers sent war correspondents to write about the progress of the campaign, and publications such as the Illustrated London News often provided engraved artists' impressions or even photographs of events. A good place to start your research is the British Newspaper Library, Colindale, in north London.

For further information: