Catalogue description Office of the Commander-in-Chief and War Office: Adjutant General's Office: Disposition and Movement of Regiment, Returns and Papers (Regimental Records)

Records of the location and movement of troops in regiments of the Regular and Territorial Army in the United Kingdom and overseas.

Pieces 1-17 [ie the registers/fiches thereof] are thought to have originated in the Adjutant General's department of the War Office but latterly were kept in the Ministry of Defence library, where they were probably used to answer historical queries about British regiments. The information in them dates back to 1674 although the documents date from c1737. Information about earlier dispositions was added in the twentieth century.

Pieces 18-129 are cards, relating almost exclusively to infantry units from 1914 to 1967 and including both Regular and reserve (including TA) battalions. These too originated in the Adjutant General’s department of the War Office. The cards are not complete and regimental/corps names are not always consistent, as many of them changed during the long period over which they were used by the Adjutant General’s staff.

See also records of auxilliary services in Division within WO

For more detailed monthly returns see WO 17

Commander-in-Chief, Adjutant General's Department, 1701-1870

War Office, Adjutant General's Department, 1870-1964

From 1990 Ministry of Defence

Historical details of regiments can be found in A Swinson, 'Regiments of and Corps of the British Army', (Archive Press, 1972), which is available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.