Records of men and women who served with the Australian army in World War I are preserved in the National Archives. In a three-year preservation project, we have digitised 376,000 of these service records.

As a gift to the nation, these records are all available online.

1. Go to NameSearch.
2. Enter the family name of the service person – make sure it is the name used at enlistment.
3. Select World War I from the dropdown menu.
4. Search.
5. Display the results of your search. If there are too many, you can refine this search result, and then enter the person’s given names and/or service number.
6. Use the link to ‘View digital copy’. You can also print a copy of the record.

World War I service records includes sample documents and explains:

• how to purchase a photocopy
• how to view an original record
• who to contact about medals

Listen to presentations at the launch of A Gift to the Nation, an event held at the National Archives in Canberra, on 11 April 2007. Author Roland Perry talks about World War I and Prime Minister John Howard launches the online availability of the WWI service records.

You can:

• subscribe to our podcast service at http://www.naa.gov.au/podcasts/audiocast.xml or
• download audio from the table below