I’m thrilled to finally be able to tell you about two of the most exciting records-related projects that The National Archives has ever been involved in, both of which launch today! And I’m not just saying that because I’ve been working on them both for such a long time…
We started digitising the First World War unit war diaries (record series WO 95) almost three years ago. The diaries rank among the most popular records in our entire collection, and scanning them has been the biggest digitisation project we’ve ever undertaken ourselves. We’re publishing the first batch of diaries online today as part of First World War 100 – you can search and download over 300,000 diary pages of the first three cavalry divisions and the first seven infantry divisions to arrive on the Western Front. By the end of this year we’ll have published the rest of the diaries that we’ve digitised, around 1.5 million pages in total, opening up an already popular record series to historians worldwide.
Detail from homepage of Operation War Diary, our new crowdsourcing project
As if digitising the diaries wasn’t exciting enough, we’re also launching a truly innovative crowdsourcing project using the war diaries. Operation War Diary aims to open up the information that’s currently locked away in the war diaries by asking volunteers to tag any data they find, whether it’s a person, place, or activity. We know some basic information about the diaries – the units they relate to, and the date ranges – but beyond this we don’t know how many people are named in the diaries, or how much they can tell us about how the war was actually fought on the front line. This is where you come in! We need an hour of your time – more if you can spare it – to read and tag a few diary pages for us.
You don’t need to know anything about the diaries to take part, although if you’re good at reading handwriting that might be an advantage. We’ve put together a ten-minute tutorial that walks you through the tagging process – this explains step by step the task that we’re asking volunteers to do for us, from telling us what type of page they’re working on through to tagging place names and weather observations. At the end of it all we’ll be left with an amazing dataset that we can incorporate back into Discovery, making it freely available for all of our users – this means that family historians will be able to search the diaries by name and place, and that academic researchers will be able to crunch the numbers and drill into the detail of what happened on the Western Front on a day-by-day basis.
One of the most exciting aspects of this project is that we’ve teamed up with Imperial War Museums, who are leading on the First World War centenary across the cultural sector, and with Zooniverse, world leaders in crowdsourcing. Using their extensive expertise and the same technology that has been used to map the universe (most recently demonstrated in last week’s BBC Stargazing Live), we’ll be publishing more diaries throughout this year. We really need lots of volunteer Citizen Historians to get tagging and help us make Operation War Diary a success – can we count on you? Sign up today!
I just hope that when completed the info will be readily available to the general public and not only to those who pay subscriptions to family history websites!
We’re planning to incorporate all of the data back into Discovery, which means that it will be freely available and that all of our users will be able to access it.
Dear War Diary:
I would like to take part in your War Diary Project. Please advise.
Thank you,
Denis F. Ellis
Hello ,
I would like to volunteer to assist the Archives in it’s Operation War Diary project .
Please contact me via the email address above .
Perry Davies .
Thanks very much! You can go straight to the website – http://www.operationwardiary.org – to sign up and take part.
After seeing Operation War Diary featured on this mornings BBC News I felt compelled to contact you.
I have in my possession a personal diary for 1918. It was given to me by an elderly lady from Rochester in Kent. I believe, the writer was a close relative of hers.
I have treasured it for about 10 years hoping I would find a person or organisation that would appreciate it as much as I do.
The first entry is for Good Friday 29thMarch:
left England for France rather rough journey embarked 8pm…………
Last entry Sunday 7th July:
Book the night before I left good old Blighty.
Do you think it could be of any use to your organisation or do you know of anyone who could benefit from knowing some graphic details of how he saw everyday life in the dugouts in 1918?
A prompt reply would be much appreciated.
Thanks for getting in touch, and sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Although we receive many generous offers of records, photographs and other historical documents, unfortunately we are rarely able to incorporate them into our holdings in a way that will allow others to access and make use of them. This is because the material we hold consists primarily of official records created by and selected from government departments and other public sector bodies.
However, we do always try to offer advice on where we think the best home for them would be. The Imperial War Museum (IWM) does collect certain types of material, but they are also launching a digital project – Lives of the First World War (www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org) – that is aimed at bringing together First World War material from museums, libraries, archives and family collections from across the world in one place. The data tagged by Operation War Diary volunteers will be linked to this site, making it an even more valuable resource for researchers.
IWM will be holding local events for members of the public to scan and upload digital versions of their precious First World War memento items to the Lives of the First World War website. This project will launch officially later this year, but you can sign up on their website now for news and updates.
Thanks again for your kind offer.
I only just saw your post. You might want to contact the local family history society and/or library in the area (Rochester, Kent) to see if anyone or any group is engaged in a one-place study. Many areas are doing research on World War I as part of their one-place or local studies and they could perhaps make use of the diary and/or find out a bit more about the serviceman and his place. Please consider sharing with them. There is a Society for One-Place Studies online and they might be able to direct your inquiry. All the best.
Get in touch with The Historic Dockyard Chatham, I know they were looking for bits and pieces.
I have this morning just completed transcribing the War Diary of the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders up to the 14th October 1916 the date of death of my Grandfathers’ brother Private 10576 Thomas Baird. I have added all known casualties and memorial locations ,either graves or Panels such as Menin Gate or Thiepval. Also trench maps and photographs of locations.
Would you be able to use a copy of this?
Baird Ferguson.
Mr. Ferguson —
An ancestor of mine, my namesake, fought with the Seaforth Highlanders. I’d be interested, in seeing the pages, you transcribed, as well as the other information, you mentioned. Is it, available, on-line anywhere? Thanks, so much.
— Alan.
Happy to help. Can the work be completed online?
Yes, in fact it can only be completed online! You can go straight to http://www.operationwardiary.org to take part. Good luck!
I would like to become a volunteer for this project. I have access to my Grandfathers’
ww1 records and think this a fascinating project. Please send me details.
Excellent! Just go to http://www.operationwardiary.org to sign up and start tagging. I hope you find the diary for your grandfather’s unit – if it’s not part of the batch we’ve published online today, it’s hopefully coming soon.
Am keen to help with the tagging but the above link to the operation war diary page does not seem to be working. Hopefully this is because you are being inundated with offers, but if not there may be a problem?
It sounds as though you may be using an unsupported browser or device. The platform is designed to work on a PC with IE 9 (or higher) or with latest versions of Chrome and Firefox (free to download). On a Mac it is designed to work with the latest version of Safari. Please don’t give up!
It’s working for me – it may be a browser issue, what web browser are you using? It needs IE9 or later, or up-to-date versions of Chrome, Firefox etc..
There is a known problem with the signup box on IE too, you will either not be able to see the field names at all, or you won’t be able to see the field name for the box which actually has input focus. TO help you, the fields are from top down, username, password, email address and real name (the last is not required, but enables us to give you full credit for contributions if you want).
It is nice to see that TNA have kept this digitisation and not passed it to a private company. This is a good idea, does this mean that the other 4/5th of the War Diaries are available to use as they were not available at one stage. There is a fascinating account of an escape from the enemy late in the War across canals and it may also add to the stories of those ‘Shot at Dawn’.
Hi David, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, and thanks for your positive comments.
All of the diaries are currently available in the reading rooms, although those that have been digitised will only be produced to readers with a valid reason for needing to consult the original diaries, in line with our standard procedures – preserving the diaries was one of the reasons for digitising them.
We’re currently exploring options for digitising more of the diaries, which will of course mean that they are temporarily removed from the reading rooms for a period of time – as before, we’ll ensure that this is communicated clearly and with plenty of notice.
Sarah
Is it possible to publish a listing of all the war diaries that have been digitised? This would save searching and getting no results.
This first batch of unit war diaries contains the diaries of the first three cavalry (WO 95/1096 to WO 95/1156) and the first seven infantry divisions (WO 95/1227 to WO 95/1670) who were part of the first wave of British army troops deployed in France and Flanders. All of the pieces and items within these references are included.
Alternatively you can search the full series (rather than just those diaries that have been digitised) on Discovery using our advanced search – make sure you included ‘WO 95’ in the Search Within section, then enter the unit’s name (or part of it) in the keyword search box at the top.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/search/advanced-search
Hope this helps! We’ll be posting more diaries online throughout the rest of this year, so if it’s not in this first batch it may well be coming soon…
Thanks for your quick response Sarah
I have found the 5 Infantry Brigade: 2 Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry however the digitised version appears to be for 1915. Do you know when the diary for 1914 will be digitised? We are looking at taking a group of scouts over to Mons and would love to have the details available for them to research. In addition do you know if these is any diary for the RFC in 1914 and when this might be made available?
It’s here: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Details?uri=C14052864 – once you’ve found one, clicking on “Browse by hierarchy” will show that entry in context, with preceding and successive items (you may need to click “previous 30” to see the earlier ones. It looks like you’d found WO 95/1348/2, you wanted WO 95/1348/1. Generally the items should run in date order for a given unit
I have a last letter written to his parents of a soldier of WW1 and his medals and grave plaque. Would any of this be of use to you otherwise where would be the best place to give them to?
Thanks for getting in touch, and for the kind offer.
Although we receive many generous offers of records, photographs and other historical documents, unfortunately we are rarely able to incorporate them into our holdings in a way that will allow others to access and make use of them. This is because the material we hold consists primarily of official records created by and selected from government departments and other public sector bodies.
However, we do always try to offer advice on where we think the best home for them would be. The Imperial War Museum (IWM) does collect certain types of material (www.iwm.org.uk/collections-research/managing/offer-material), but they are also launching a digital project soon – Lives of the First World War (www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org) – that is aimed at bringing together First World War material from museums, libraries, archives and family collections from across the world in one place. The data tagged by Operation War Diary volunteers will be linked to this site, making it an even more valuable resource for researchers.
IWM will be holding local events for members of the public to scan and upload digital versions of their precious First World War memento items to the Lives of the First World War website. This project will launch officially later this year, but you can sign up on their website now for news and updates.
Thanks again for your kind offer, hope this helps.
I have the other side of this story, letters written to my grandfather in the trenches by his mother and which he kept with him in two wallets throughout the campaign. I have scanned all of them, is there somewhere I could send them?
Hi David,
See my reply to C Smith – sorry that we can’t take them in, but I hope that Lives of the First World War will prove useful to you when it launches.
Sarah
I have signed up for the tagging and as I have started deciphering the writing I have got more use to reading it – I would then like to go back over the first couple of pages but cannot find a way of going back?? Any ideas.
Hi Kevin,
Sorry, at the moment you can’t add/edit tags that you’ve already added to a diary page. It will be seen and tagged by other volunteers though, so if you think there’s something that’s not quite right it should be picked up by others. I’ll make sure we feed this back to Zooniverse though, as I understand that it takes a little while to get the hang of reading some of the handwriting (and understanding the terminology).
Thanks for the feedback though, and I hope you stick with it!
Sarah
what do i need to read the diaries. there has been great publicty about it but every site i have been onis asking people to get involved. i just want to read.
My real name is Pauline Wynnward, not sure if I should have put that above.
I am keen to just read the diaries. I do not seem to be just able to turn over to the next page. Please advise.
I have attempted to do some tagging but not only is the site very slow but I am worried that I am either making mistakes or not completing all information required. I was able to cancel all tagging that I had done on that page.
You can browse and download digital copies of the diaries on our website – go to http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/firstworldwar to find out more!
Mike Carter
If you do this you will be reading the war diaries. You just have to add a few tags as well, date, time place, and people etc. I think it will get quite addictive. In the unit diary I was reading yesterday they had captured 12 guns and 100 prisoners of war.
My Grandfather served in the Devonshire Regiment from Dec 1913 until Dec 1915 when he was invalided out due to wounds received on active service in France.
I have drawn blank in trying to put any flesh on the basic facts I have.
Will this new addition to the records aid my search?
My father in law was awarded the Military Medal during the first world war and the only details which I have are as follows
RFN[?] 312{W.Rid] 13de.Regimental Number125344 Rank Gnr. Registered Paper0137/6147 Schedule number259637.These details may not be accurate as the paper I have here is very old.Can you shed any further light on this ?
Sandra Walker
I have my granddad’s diary covering the first nine months, (until he was invalided out), of his active service in Mons and Ypres. The original, handwritten, diary was somewhat illegible but he transcribed it later into a readable form, this I have converted to MSWord.doc document and am anxious to donate a copy to any organisation that could use it. Advice on interested recipients would be very much appreciated.
Are you interested in receiving photographs of named soldiers. I have a photo of my great uncle who fought underage from 1915 – 1917 when he died at Menin Ridge Road in the battle there. His death was listed as 29/9/17 when the division made it back to Arras. I suspect he died (body never found/identified) during the week of that battle. I am looking forward to being able to read the diaries of 13th Royal Scots or the 15 Scottish Division.
will the war diaries from the Gallipoli campiagn be included in the digitisation programme?
The Gallipoli diaries haven’t been included in this first round of digitisation – with limited resources we had to focus on the most popular diaries in the collection, which were those from the Western Front. However, we would like to see the rest of the series digitised before the end of the centenary and we are exploring the different ways that this might be achieved. Watch this space!
Am I right in thinking that on the archive site you still have to pay to see the records and download ? I searched for Coldstream guards and found records but there’s a charge.
You’re right. Searching the records on Discovery, our online catalogue, is free, but a small fee applies to download digital copies. Visitors to our reading rooms can view them free of charge.
As the government’s national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, we do not receive funding to make records downloadable: our statutory duty under the Public Records Act is to make it possible to search and locate information, a service which is provided by Discovery, our catalogue. The cost of digitising records is considerable and is considered an ‘added value’ service by HM Treasury: as such we are required to recover the full cost of the service from our customers
A few months ago I downloaded several files from WO 95 ie 2694, 4293, 4302, 4310 all relating to Gallipoli. Now they can’t be downloaded, the site says they are not digitised and you say above that you have not even started to digitise them. This does not make sense. I have found many refs to my grandfather’s ship HMS Waterwitch transporting soldiers at Mudros in 1915-16, and want to find more. Why can’t you give a more helpful reply to people who have stuff of interest to others?
Hello Manica – I had same problem trying to download last week at TNA the digitised Gallipoi diary I downloaded & part read 4years ago!! (WO95/4299) & I noted that I read as far as Image no 595 p 149 [Sept 1915] However, last week when trying to access same it just came up as not digitised you will need to order document in Reading Room! Why is this – it must have been done for me to have seen it on line 4 years even, if then, it was only a pilot scheme? If it was available digitised in Feb 2010 when I sawit, even if done by/for TNA as a pilot scheme, the digitised copy must surely still exist even if not as part 1 of the present “World War 1 100” scheme, so why can’t we still see it? It just doesn’t make sense.
Can somebody from TNA please provide a satisfactory answer to explain this
Hi Manica, I’m really sorry for the delay in replying to your enquiry.
You’re right in saying that we had previously made around 20 diaries available online that have now been removed, and that some of these related to Gallipoli. They were unfortunately scanned at lower resolution than the diaries that we have just digitised and published online, and we have received complaints that some were difficult to read.
With this in mind, plus the fact that the diaries were only available at piece level (and were therefore enormous in size, which caused some customers download problems), we decided to remove these 20 diaries from Discovery to avoid any further confusion or disappointment. We hope to rescan them all to the higher standard and improve the catalogue entries for the diaries by making them available at item level, as we have done for the other diaries that have just been published online.
The original diaries are still available to order in our reading rooms.
I don’t quite see how tagging is going to help those who download the copies of the War Diaries for a particular unit. How will this all work?
We’ll be incorporating the tagging data from Operation War Diary back into Discovery – as we’re asking people to tag names, we’re hoping that this will help provide family historians with an alternative way to search the diaries.
You’re right in saying that tagging isn’t necessarily going to directly benefit researchers already familiar with the diaries and how they’re structured, but we do hope that the resulting data will benefit all of our users in one way or another!
How will this all work ? It is me to complicated, I do n’t find anny diary at all. Thanks.
I am currently researching my maternal grandfather who served with the Manchester Regiment as part of the BEF.
I have discovered his date of death and where he is commemorated in France. Last year I went to Belgium and France to trace the battalions footsteps. I am currently researching the Battalions war diary to try and get a location of where he fell.
Can I choice to start tagging this dairy or do I have to research a different document?
Will the digitizing include the war diaries of the Royal Garrison Artillery and Field Artillery units? Without the artillery where would the PBI be!!
Yes, they aer included too, see the results of this search for which artillery related diaries are now available: search, restricted to WO 95, online records only, for word artillery
Hi,
I would like to volunteer to assist the Archives in it’s Operation War Diary project .
Please contact me via the email address above.
Regards
Richard Wheeler
Thanks Richard, that’s great news! To sign up and volunteer, go straight to the Operation War Diary website – http://www.operationwardiary.org
Hi Sarah,
I am trying to access the diaries on http://www.operationwardiary.org but whenever I click on the address in any of your answers I get a picture of lots of British soldiers wearing or holding German issue equipment/uniform. Then nothing happens and nothing I do makes the site progress to the diaries or the tutorial.
Can you offer any help as to how I can progress to the details?
Thank you.
Hi Chris,
It sounds as though you may be on an unsupported browser – if you’re on a PC, please use IE version 9 (or higher), or latest versions of Chrome and Firefox. On a Mac you will need the latest version of Safari. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your response Marion.
I am using Windows 8.1 with IE 11 so I don’t think out of date software is the problem.
Anything else you think I might check?
I have just done some of the tagging, and have some comments.
1. The tutorial is confusing. For example, it says to move the tag menu, when it means to move the page. It does not explain that you have to click on the appropriate symbol on the tag menu, and then click on the page where you want it to go.
2. The white outline of the tag obscures the diary entry. If you put a tag on, say a name, you can’t read the name anymore, and have to remember what it is.
3. Some of the drop-down menus don’t persist. You have to use the down arrow to go down a list, or type the first letter of the choice.
4. It would seem sensible to return to continue the same page at the next session. When I tried to do so, I couldn’t find it. Are they arranged in any sort of order?
Sarah
Please may I have an explanation re my comments of 16 Jan?
I have already worked on a couple of the War Diaries and am looking forward to doing some more. A fascinating project – I hope the finished and tagged diaries will be available for public view online? I have just started teaching a Family History Online classes at local Worcestershire Libraries, and some of my students would love to see the finished articles.
I have worked on the diaries for two or three weeks and have had no trouble, but now, when I open them from my “Favourites” list, a diary page appears, then slides over to the left and meets the “Date, Time, Place, etc.” column. which then disappears when I continue to tag.
The reason given is that “Operation War Diary is not responding, due to a long-running script”. I do not understand what this means, but the solution given is “Stop Script”. I do this, but then the whole process is repeated when I try to resume tagging.
Further solutions are provided: *Check for solution and close the program OR *Close the program.
This does not work, either.
Another solution offered is “View problem details”. A list is given, but I do not understand the terminology.
Can you help?
It would be better to raise this via the discussion boards within Operation War Diary. It’s a problem with the scripting that allows the various tags to be applied by the sounds of it. The software is developed by Zooniverse, The National Archvies’ have no direct input into it.
These sorts of issues are normally related to slight incompatibilities between different web browsers (or even different versions of the same browser). This link http://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/boards/BWD0000001 should take you direct to the Bug Reports board. Copy and paster the text you have put in your comment here, and also add the details of your browser and version (version can normally be found from Help -> About).
The first batch of diaries have nearly all been tagged, only one left now. When will the next batch become available for tagging? There is nothing on the TNA or Operation War Diary websites about it. Couldn’t you publish a timetable with some details? “Throughout this year” isn’t enough.
If you don’t keep people informed, you’ll lose their support, which would be a great pity after such a tremendous start. It’s such a worthwhile project.
Hi, as with previous requests, just looking for an update as to next batch of war diaries. I have enjoyed tagging nearly 900 pages and found out a great deal about the lives of the men in and out the trenches. Thanks and keep up the good work.
I noticed that a number of those posting were looking for places to deposit material (diaries, photos, letters, etc), which don’t fall within The National Archives’ remit. Local authority and regimental archives are generally happy to receive material such as this which falls within their remit. For example, Hampshire Archives and Local Studies would be happy to receive material relating to Hampshire, and we also hold the regimental archive of The Royal Green Jackets which covers The King’s Royal Rifle Corps and The Rifle Brigade.
Are all the diaries British? My daughter and I can read the old German handwriting, and would be glad to help decipher any German diaries that you have.
Though I live in the US, I’m honored to be taking part in this wonderful project. When speaking about military history, World War One didn’t seem very popular. Everyone wanted to talk about World War Two. Yet, The Great War was supposed to be the ‘war to end all wars.’ Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. In fact, it was THE war that ushered in the lethal killing machines by way of the Industrial Revolution, some described by stories from H.G. Wells.
I’m a second generation Scottish/American. My Great Grandmother and Grandfather lived in Edinburgh, Scotland during this momentous time in European history. Now, I can humbly volunteer my time in this tremendous project. Thank you for letting people like myself in helping to preserve history.
Do you still need volunteers?
Hi: Would love to help but cannot access the tutorial – just stops when tryinghg to access the catergory information. Even log in and attempted to tag still would work !!!
Sorry
Thanks
Hi there
I have been tagging the war diaries for about a month and now it wan’t let me sign in. Just get a Signin Failed message every time I try. I even tried to sign up as a newbie and that failed too. Whats going on? Why no message to say there is a problem with the site?
Eleanor
I recently downloaded the War Diary for the 7th Cameron Highlanders from the National Archive. Is there any way in which I can start tagging the document or do I need to wait till it becomes available on the Operation Wardiary website?
The website talks (in the overview pages) about transcribing the War Diaries as well as tagging but then this gets no further mention. I have made transcriptions of some of the War Diaries. Are these likely to be of interest to the project. I can of course also tag these pages, many of which contain detailed information of the type described.
My father served in WW1. He joined D.Company, 7th Service Battalion, The
Queens Regiment, Royal West Surrey. Army No. 1972, name Frank Hartnap
Gratwick. I have a post card sent to him on his Birthday, 10th June 1915. He was at several of the major Battles and was wounded on 26th January, 1916,
I have extracts from his diary after being wounded and details of his return
Journey to the trenches. Also I have some needle point he worked whilst convalescing.
Sometime after he returned to the front, he became a stretcher bearer.
The remainder of his life I can remember him talking about his experiences,
He died in 1960 age 65 years. Not sure if this info is of any use to you. DC.
[…] sobre las actividades y decisiones tomadas por las mismas en el campo de batalla. Además, han iniciado un proyecto de crowdsourcing (Operation War Diary) con el objetivo de que la gente pueda ayudar a […]
[…] War Diary, that was launched this January to mark the centenary of the First World War (Operation War Diary – you archive needs you!), a project that encourages users to tag the data they discover within the entries, such as names, […]
Hi I would like to sign up. I think this e old greatly help with my career for the future and towards my history g degree I am studying. Thanks.
Hi Antony, thanks very much! You can go straight to the website – http://www.operationwardiary.org – to sign up and take part.
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[…] of the war's beginning. The National Archives also launched a crowdsourcing project called "Operation War Diary," asking citizen historians to help tag data such as people, places, dates and activities […]
Dear team,
I am Francisco Castanon, one of the Transforming Archives Trainee (Digitisation, digital preservation and outreach) at Hull History Centre. I just discovered ‘Operation War Diary’ and the project looks amazing. I would like to know if there would be a possibility to collaborate with your campaign.
Kind regards,
Francisco
Hi Francisco,
Thanks for your comment and interest in the project – we’ll be in touch soon.
Best,
Nell
Hello,
I am interested in volunteering for the Operation War Diary Project.
Is help still needed?
Hi Kiran,
Yes, it is! Visit the website – http://www.operationwardiary.org – to sign up and take part.
Best,
Nell
An index to the War Diaries would be useful so that we know which units’ diaries exist. I can see some Irish ones on pages 1 and 2, other pages seem to be inaccessible – why ?
I’ve no interest in Irish diaries, but I would be prepared to help on Scottish diaries or diaries belonging to English regiments in which my great-uncles and their relatives fought.