Information received from MOD

[Marianthompson47]

Hello

I approached the MOD four months ago in order to request war records for my father in law.

I was elated to receive their response but now, there are more questions than answers.

The reason being that of the four sheets of information they sent , most of the responses have been blacked out. These are answers to questions relating to his next of kin and current address for instance.

My husband and his brother recall that my father in law spoke about the time he spent in a Japanese military prison. No detail of this event is mentioned on the reply.

In their email, they say I can complain.

My father in law and his wife died around 2005 so freedom of information and privacy would  not apply.

What would be my next step forward please? Thank you.

[rafcommands]

First there are three important dates that change the level of information released to someone who is not a close NoK (defined by MoD as subject or their spouse.

1. Up to 25 years after death Only really acknowledgement of service and overall time from enlistment to Non-effective status. - usually more redactions than remaining print

2. More than 25 years after death, open to everyone on request - this is proven by inclusion of either a copy of a death certificate/presumption of death or CWGC link if they died in service. If proof of death not included with application redaction inline with 1 above applied. If valid application then service record with redactions to identifiable personal data, military penalties and medical events.

3. 115 years after birth, open to everyone on request - no need to provide proof of death. Full record mostly available but in some cases still redaction to living persons, medical and military penalty.

So what you received depended on information provided - but at only 20 years since death you should have only got bare details of service.

Service records rarely have details of PoW as the person was still classed as posted to the original unit but is listed as Non Effective to allow the unit to replace them.

Ross

[Marianthompson47]

Hi Ross,  thank you so much for your kind and detailed reply. It goes straight to the point and I therefore assume there is no point in querying the darkened areas with the MOD.

[rafcommands]

In my experience the MoD disclosures are diligent with redactions - TNA not so much as they are going through the pain of a new system and larger public application than they planned for.

However there are other sources that can be used to compliment or fill the gaps in service records eg for Far East PoWs

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14549

Ross

[Marianthompson47]

Thank you once again for your invaluable help and your latest link which I will investigate.

On a different note, I applied to the MOD for my own father's war records. They wrote to me to say they had passed the case to the National Archives. They informed me of their current process and apologised for the delay... Nothing is straight forward. 😊