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Quote from: scrimnet on Saturday 29 April 23 13:24 BST (UK)

Although this was true of WW1 records, it sadly no longer is. They were sold off.
And importantly ALL records post 1921 are STILL with the MOD only. They are migrating to the National Archives and ultimately digitisation, but you still have to go through Kentigern House atm.

Forces War Records is sadly a waste of time and money. They have nothing which is not either free and in the public domain, or on ancestry or FindMyPast....Avoid

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-records-of-deceased-service-personnel

Scrimnet, My comment about the Coldstream was based on this section contained in the TNA research Guide:

Quote

Service records of Guards regiments

The Coldstream Guards and Scots Guards regiments retain their own records. To access them write to or call the appropriate regimental headquarters.

For Grenadier, Irish and Welsh Guards service records visit the GOV.UK website.

Some of these records were destroyed by enemy bombing of the Guards chapel during the Second World War.

My understanding is that although the service records are with the MOD, the Guards hold quite a lot of unit level nominal rolls and other documentation which may be of help in identifying if Zoe's grandad was in the Coldstream Guards.

On your second point, I was not suggesting that she looks at FWR. The links are to WW2Talk with which I'm sure you are familiar and will acknowledge is an excellent forum.

As for FWR, its a general warning to the OP

Hi Zoe

Welcome to the forum.

The Grenadiers and Coldstream both had shoulder titles with white lettering on a red background so it's not clear from the photo which he might have been. The only difference is that the Coldstream used sanserif lettering, whereas the Grenadiers used letters with serifs. Unfortunately the photo isn't clear enough to show that sort of detail. If you have the original photo rather than the scan, try checking it with a magnifying glass.

I'm not sure what your dad meant about the buttons as there aren't any that I can see in this photo. I assume he was talking about the spacing of the No1 Tunic (the scarlett ones the Guards wear on ceremonial duties). If so then that doesn't really help here since your grandad is in battle dress.

Almost uniquely the Scots Guards and the Coldstream retained their own records for the period after 1920 so if your grandad was Coldstream you may be in luck tracking down his details. You need to contact their Regimental Headquarters with as much detail as you can supply. Sadly the same does not apply to the Grenadier Guards and the only place you will find their records is with the MOD. As you say it's difficult to apply for any service records without a death certificate but presumably you can get that fairly easily.

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you try putting his name into a search on the National Archives website along with the word Guards and limit the date range to 1939 - 1946. Something may just crop up, such as a medal award or casualty list entry.

You could also try searching for your grandad's name on the WW2Talk forum. They are assembling a list of known regimental numbers for the two regiments and you might just get lucky providing that his was a not too common surname.
http://WW2talk.com/index.php?threads/coldstream-guards-reference-thread.80210/
http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/grenadier-guards-reference-thread.80209/

If you post his name here, I'm sure some of our talented sleuths will find some more details for you.

Although this was true of WW1 records, it sadly no longer is. They were sold off.
And importantly ALL records post 1921 are STILL with the MOD only. They are migrating to the National Archives and ultimately digitisation, but you still have to go through Kentigern House atm.

Forces War Records is sadly a waste of time and money. They have nothing which is not either free and in the public domain, or on ancestry or FindMyPast....Avoid

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-records-of-deceased-service-personnel

The files from WO97 ie the pre 1913 discharges of the British Army can be found on Find My Past...

This is from the Times of India, Saturday 14 November 1874.

Points to note...One can ascertain the rank of the husbands when women with the army are mentioned...

Officers and their Ladies
Sergeants and their Wives
Soldiers and their Women

This was still the norm in the British army until the ....1990s!!

Any soldiers wife was just listed as "Wife of ...." in the records.
Many wives adopted the rank of their husbands so completely that they tried to run the lives of other women in the unit