If a member of your family fought in World War One then they may feature in De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour, a detailed biography of over 26,000 soldiers of all ranks who died fighting for their country. The records include more than 7,000 pictures of those men featured. Findmypast have improved these records to provide higher quality images and a better search experience.
If a member of your family fought in World War One then they may feature in De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour, a detailed biography of over 26,000 soldiers of all ranks who died fighting for their country. The records include more than 7,000 pictures of those men featured. Findmypast have improved these records to provide higher quality images and a better search experience.
Each record contains an image from the original Roll of Honour and a transcript of the name found in the document. The amount of information listed varies, but the De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour records usually include the following information about your ancestor from official sources:
Name
Regiment
Place of death
Date of death
A photograph (7,000 of the 26,000 records include an image)
Where the family have been consulted, the records may also contain:
Parents’ names
Birth date and place
Details about life prior to the war – school, employment, family, etc.
Cause of death
Awarded medals
It should be noted that the length and style of the entries vary considerably. Equally, the photographs of the deceased also differ in quality due to their age and the varying sources the Marquis De Ruvigny obtained them from.
Originally published in five volumes, Marquis De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour features biographies of over 26,000 Army, Navy and Air Force men (both officers and other ranks) killed in the Great War. 7,000 of these include photographs.
The majority of the biographies relate to deaths in the early years of the war, although there is some coverage of deaths in 1917 and 1918, too.
The notion of an all-encompassing biographical listing of each serviceman killed in the Great War, at the war's outset, would have seemed perfectly feasible. In the early months, a quick, easy victory was expected, and would-be soldiers volunteered in their droves. For many, at this stage, their main fear was not one of death, but that the war would have ended before they saw any action.
It quickly became clear, however, that the war would be long-lasting; the disasters of 1916 and 1917 making those early months of patriotic optimism seem a distant memory. By then it was perfectly clear that the De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour's ambitions were entirely unachievable. Nonetheless, this roll offers a unique glimpse at over 26,000 men who gave their lives, and stands as a tribute both to the men themselves and the perseverance of the roll's compilers.