British Armed Forces, First World War Widows' Pension Forms
Search through The National Archives’ collection of pension forms from the First World War. Discover your ancestor’s cause and date of death, spouse’s name, and children’s names. The pension forms were created by the Ministry of Pensions, and these are only a sample of the original forms. This collection represents less than 2% of the original records; the rest of the collection was destroyed.
See description
Search through The National Archives’ collection of pension forms from the First World War. Discover your ancestor’s cause and date of death, spouse’s name, and children’s names. The pension forms were created by the Ministry of Pensions, and these are only a sample of the original forms. This collection represents less than 2% of the original records; the rest of the collection was destroyed.
Learn more about these records
Each result will provide you with an image of the original pension record from The National Archive and a transcript of the key facts. The details in each transcript depend on the information found in the original document. You should find a combination of the following facts:
- Name
- Service number
- Regiment
- Service
- Death year
- Cause of death
- Marriage year
- Spouse’s name
- Children’s names
- Archive and reference
Image
The image will always provide further details about your ancestor such as attestation year, rank, and date and place of death, as well as your ancestor’s age at the time of death. Some records will also note if your ancestor received any awards or medals. The later records do include more information about your ancestor’s service.
This collection is from The National Archives’ series PIN 82, Ministry of Pensions: First World War Widows’ Pensions Forms. The pension forms were created by the Ministry of Pensions, and these are only a sample of the original forms. This collection represents less than 2% of the original records; the rest of the collection was destroyed. For data protection reasons, Findmypast has suppressed any records with children born less than 100 years ago. The records include the names of soldiers who died during and after the First World War. You will find pension records for soldiers who died up to 1925.
It is estimated that three to four million women became war widows during the First World War and most had children to support. Each record will provide you with the name of the soldier’s next of kin. You may also find notes if a soldier was missing and then later confirmed to be deceased. For example, the record for Private Benjamin Adams of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment recorded the name of his wife, Catherine Adams of Sultans in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. From the record, we discover that Private Adams was reported as wounded and missing in France from 4 March 1917. Catherine Adams began to receive the pension from the 17 December 1917; prior to this, Mrs Adams was receiving the separation allowance. The image of the original document shows a stamp stating deceased. Therefore, from the time the record was first created and Private Adams was missing, he was later confirmed to be deceased.