In conjunction with the Centre for Bucks Studies at Aylesbury, the Trust’s secretary, Professor Ian Beckett, has received a grant of £11,955 from the ‘Gateways to the First World War’ Centre at the University of Kent for a research project based on the casualty books of the 1/1st Bucks Battalion, 1914-18. These unique records, which are held in CBS, detail such aspects of military life as leave and training periods, illnesses and wounds, and disciplinary offences. Together with the order books of B and C Companies (1915-18), and a Company Trench Log from 1915-16, the records will be fully digitised for a comprehensive database. Apart from the academic value of the data, the project will be an invaluable aid to geneaologists researching Bucks servicemen in the Great War. Digitisation will be carried out by a specialist contractor but volunteers will be recruited by CBS to transcribe the data.
Volunteers wishing to assist in transcription should contact Laura Cotton at CBS at www.buckscc.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/centre-for-buckinghamshire-studies.