A most useful record in connection with the death of a soldier is the register of financial effects. Held in the original by the National Army Museum, it has been digitised and can be found online at Ancestry.
In most cases, the register shows a sum of unissued pay and allowances, and who this money was paid to. This would normally be a next of kin, or whoever the man had stipulated in his own will. The register also shows a calculated war gratuity, and who received that money.
But in some cases, for some reason, the legal recipient was unknown or untraceable. In this instance, the man and the monetary value were added to a list of unclaimed sums.
The very fact that a man’s money went unclaimed raises interesting questions that may be of particular value for family historians to consider. Had his next of kin died out? Or relocated?
The lists included unclaimed balances not only for “other ranks” but officers of applicable. For instance, the name of Major W. H. Abell of the 4th Middlesex Regiment, one of the first to die in the war, was listed.
Newspapers of December 1925 were reporting that more than £100,000 was still unclaimed. This is approximately equivalent to £7.2m today.
London Gazette listings
The list below identifies the edition of the “London Gazette” that first included a given unclaimed financial effects list. Each row gives: list number (in Roman numerals), date of Gazette, page. This includes the war-time lists, but the practice continued thereafter, particularly the republication of lists that stil had unclaimed balances.
- CCCCLXXVIII – 21 August 1914 – 6607
- CCCCLXXIX – 22 September 1914 – 7502
- CCCCLXXX – 22 October 1914 – 8413
- CCCCLXXXI – 22 January 1915 – 713
- CCCCLXXXII – 5 March 1915 – 2259
- CCCCLXXXVIII – 21 May 1915 – 4907
- CCCCLXXXIV – 22 June 1915 – 6036
- CCCCLXXXV – 23 July 1915 – 7206
- CCCCLXXXVI – 24 August 1915 – 8410
- CCCCLXXXVII – 24 September 1915 – 9451
- CCCCLXXXVIII – 26 October 1915 – 10524
- CCCCLXXXIX – 30 November 1915 – 11933
- CCCCXC – 31 December 1915 – 13026
- CCCCXCI – 28 March 1916 – 3299
- CCCCXCII – 28 April 1916 – 4273
- CCCCXCIII – 26 May 1916 – 5213
- CCCCXCIV – 23 June 1916 – 6231
- CCCCXCV – 21 July 1916 – 7229
- CCCCXCVI – 22 August 1916 – 8298
- CCCCXCVII – 26 September 1916 – 9360
- CCCCXCVIII – 20 October 1916 – 10096
- CCCCXCIX – 21 November 1916 – 11264
- CCCCC – 29 December 1916 – 12671
- CCCCCI – 23 March 1917 – 2875
- CCCCCII – 27 April 1917 – 3957
- CCCCCIII – 29 May 1917 – 5225
- CCCCCIV – 29 June 1917 – 6419
- CCCCCV – 31 July 1917 – 7795
- CCCCCVI – 24 August 1917 – 8704
- CCCCCVII – 28 September 1917 – 10052
- CCCCCVIII – 30 October 1917 – 11157
- CCCCCIX – 30 November 1917 – 12558
- CCCCCX – 28 December 1917 – 13582
- CCCCCXI – 29 March 1918 – 3921
- CCCCCXII – 30 April 1918 – 5197
- CCCCCXIII – 31 May 1918 – 6369
- CCCCCXIV – 28 June 1918 – 7630
- CCCCCXV – 23 July 1918 – 8612
- CCCCCXVI – 30 August 1918 – 10177
- CCCCCXVII – 27 September 1918 – 11444
- CCCCCXVIII – 25 October 1918 – 12601 (includes case of Sydney Moss, above)
- CCCCCXIX – 29 November 1918 – 14120
- CCCCCXX – 31 December 1918 – 15256
- CCCCCXXI – 28 March 1919 – 4012
- CCCCCXXII – 29 April 1919 – 5328
- CCCCCXXIII – 30 May 1919 – 6664
- CCCCCXXIV – 27 June 1919 – 8097
When searching the online “London Gazette”, you may need to be a little flexible as the Roman numerals and things like the terms “soldiers balances” or “balances unclaimed” do not always find the right page. A good way is to search using a date range and enter the page number in the “text search” box.