Good news for those interested in military history.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25716569
Bad news of course is that even if they are public records held at the public records office for the good of the public, you do of course have to pay money to see them. I don't know if they are all the same, but I picked one at random and it wanted the bizarre figure of £3.36 to download the PDF.
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Good news indeed, many have an interest in this sort of thing. I've had chance to have a good read through unit diaries in the past from WW2, not sure if they are in the achieve yet? One of those things you find yourself immersed in quite quickly.
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>> Bad news of course is that even if they are public records held at the
>> public records office for the good of the public, you do of course have to
>> pay money to see them. I don't know if they are all the same, but
>> I picked one at random and it wanted the bizarre figure of £3.36 to download
>> the PDF.
Way of the world I'm afraid. Although the records are kept at public expense interest is mostly from those in a position to pay. Do you make this service free or make more of today's soldiers redundant?
I'm in the make 'em pay camp albeit with an exemption for those on the family history trail.
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Doesn't seem an outragous amount of money, especially if you were into family historys and that sort of thing.
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I'll go for the making soldiers redundant idea ta.
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Another cheapskate on the forum eh? ;-)
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>Way of the world I'm afraid. Although the records are kept at public expense interest is mostly from those
>in a position to pay. Do you make this service free or make more of today's soldiers redundant?
>I'm in the make 'em pay camp albeit with an exemption for those on the family history trail.
I'm in the opposite camp I'm afraid.
They are public records and access to them in electronic form should be free to everyone. If National Archives don't want to digitize and host them for free I'm sure that Google would (and more reliably).
As for your claim that not charging for them would impact today's soldiers? Maybe getting rid of a few of our surplus Generals and Admirals would save a few quid?
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WWI diaries go online - sooty123
