Imperial War Museum

Around six million photographs by official military, professional and private photographers are held by the Imperial War Museum. Indexes of identified personalities exist for both the First and Second World War holdings. However, given the numbers involved, precise identifications of ordinary serving men or women are the exception rather than the rule. More commonly the images serve to provide a vital context to a relative's career or experience. Without doubt what can be especially helpful is to find photographs of ships that relatives served on, or photographs which offer a visual narrative of the war years.

Film and video offer similar general material.

You can listen to retrospective interviews with service personnel and civilians, but there are also contemporary archive recordings and miscellaneous recordings from radio and television, lectures and poetry readings. These recordings may well be the source of useful background information; for example a whole series of taped interviews were made with the participants in the Spanish Civil War, and if a relative had fought in this it would make fascinating listening.