Resources

Many online resources are available for genealogy and World War 1 research. The following have been particularly useful during my search.


General information on the war and units:

• World War I military maps (how to read WW1 map references, such as 51b U.22.c.7.3)
• Searching the Great War Forum, also works for non-registered users. It's a mine of useful information and has many helpful participants.
• A World War 1 channel on the rootschat.com forum.
• Imperial War Museum search, brings up many documents, photos and recordings.
• Various unit histories at The Military Archive
• War diaries of army units can be found at the National Archives. Those which are available online require a payment of just over £3 to get hold of a PDF file. 
• New York Times search of news articles from the time, e.g. http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/Scarpe/

8th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment

• Dedicated web site
• The war diary of the 8th Bn East Yorks for September 1915 (National Archives, ref. WO 95/1424/2, can be downloaded for £3.36). The scanned and transcribed version can be read in this post.
• 50th Division at 1914-1918.net
  
• Battle of Loos at the Long, Long Trail 
• Battle of Loos on Wikipedia
• Battle of Loos from the Old Front Line Battlefields of WW1 
• Loos: Hill 70 (Battlegroup Europe series) by Andrew Lawson, ISBN 0850529042
• Accounts of the Battle of Loos from the Out of Battle blog 
• A History of the Great War, Volume II: 1915 by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1917. Chapter VII covers the Battle of Loos. 
• 9th Dispatch of Sir John French
• For Love and Courage: The Letters of Lieutenant Colonel E.W. Hermon from the Western Front 1914 - 1917 (Hermon was in action at Loos and the surrounding areas)
• The Great Push, a novel by Patrick McGill based on the Battle of Loos in which he participated.

7th Battalion, Border Regiment

• Border Regiment, basic information
• The war diary of the 7th Borders for July 1915 to March 1919 (National Archives, ref WO 95/2008/1). The scanned and transcribed entries for April 1917 can be read in this post.
• Border Regiment Wiki
• 7th Battalion Border Regiment in the war
• 17th (Northern) Division
• German HQ reports on the Arras offensive

2/5 Lincolnshire Regiment

• Lincolnshire troops thrown in at the deep end during the Easter Rising
• Lt. Walker at Hargicourt
• Hargicourt at The Long, Long Trail

Resources concerning individuals:

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Their searchable database of all war graves, along with the National Archives' Medal Index Cards, is a good starting point for tracking down individuals.
• Find Your Soldier resources at The Long, Long Trail, an excellent source of information.
• Combatants' Medal Index Cards can be found at the National Archives, searchable by unit, name, etcetera. The found MICs are partially obscured, requiring a payment of £3.50 to get hold of a PDF of the full scanned record. 
• How to interpret Medal Index Cards.
• Pension record cards lookup request.

Other resources:

• Access to the UK Births, Marriages & Deaths Index via FreeBMD
• ancestory.com, a genealogy site with a monthly fee but also a 14-day free trial
• Family Search, a free resource run by the Mormons