Note: After viewing a CWGC record select the back button on the web browser menu to return to the search engine results page.
Do not select the CWGC "< Back to search results" button.

General
Searches are case insensitive
Leave unwanted fields blank
Take care entering spaces (see below)
If you do not find what you are looking for, adding additional input data will not resolve the problem!

Regiment/Corps
Select required regiment from the selection list. Alternately select the nationality. This will search all regiments within the selected nationality

Last name
Enter name or part of the name. Examples:
Selecting 'begins with' and entering Smith will find SMITH, SMITHIES, SMITHERS, etc.
Selecting 'contains' and entering Alder will find ALDER, ALDERTON, CALDER, etc.
Selecting 'exact' will find exact matches only

Forename
Forename will find a partial match. For example a search on JOHN will find JOHN, JOHN THOMAS, THOMAS JOHN.
A search on JOHN THOMAS will not find THOMAS JOHN. Beware names are sometimes reversed, so avoid entering too much data

Initials
Initials MUST be entered without spaces and will find any matching arrangement. For example entering JT will find JT, PJT, JTW, etc.

Date
Enter the date in the form dd/mm/yyyy only. Example:
01/02/1915 will find records dated 1st February 1915
A date range may also be used. Example:
27/01/1917-29/01/1917 will find records for any of these three days.
If the CWGC record does not have an exact date, for example it may be recorded as
Between 01/07/1916 and 02/07/1916, then a date range search will only succeed
if both the first and last date of the record are within the entered search range.
If a single search date is entered, then records with a recorded date range will be found
if the start date matches the search date.

Regiment number
Examples:
123 will find 123, 5123, G/123, etc.

Unit text
Enter text to identify the battalion, ship or unit. Do not enter too much
text, less is usually better and avoid using . or ". Observe spaces.
Some GOOD examples:
4th bn
2nd/4th
50th bty
lusitania
Good Hope

Some BAD examples:
1/4 bn - should be 1st/4th
1/4th bn - should be 1st/4th bn
4th. bn. - should be 4th bn
50th.bty - should be 50th bty
"lusitania" - should be lusitania
HMS Good-Hope - should be Good Hope
You can also search for vessels with a prefix H.M.S. H.M.T. S.S. etc.

Note that due to the varying way unit text is recorded, it is not yet possible to find an exact match
For example 4th bn will also find 14th bn 1st/4th bn etc. since there is a partial match of the search string

Secondary Unit
This only works where the first unit is a UK unit. Other nationalities will be added later.

Secondary Unit Text
The data in this field is very variable, so should be used with care. Frequently this field holds a Labour Corp number and can be used to find these records by entering the full or part Labour Corps number.

Including word
The Including word search is applied to the Additional Information field in the CWGC record.
This will search for a match on any occurrence of the word, words, part word or phrase.
For the exact phrase, take care with spaces.
For example "ford " will find THETFORD ROAD but not FORDHAM since
there is a space entered after ford. This feature is sometimes useful for searching for the start
or end of a word. If both search fields are used, they must both match the record to return a result.
The Excluded word, or phrase can be used to filter out unwanted records containing the exact word or phrase..

Awards
Note: For the 2023 update awards must be entered in full. Use MILITARY MEDAL and not M M etc.

Enter awards without dots, but with spaces. For example
D C M
M M
Mentioned
2 Bar

Plot and Row
This will only work with the most common form, for example a burial reference:
III. A. 20
Enter III in the plot field and A in row field to find all burials in this row.
Note that it will only find burials for one nationality, for example if you search for Vaulx Hill Cemetery Plot III and Row A you will need to set the nationality to UK and search, then repeat the search for Australia to find all the burials.
If you do not find all burials within a row, either they are not in my index, the burial is unknown and hence not in the register or there is a transcript error in the grave reference.
Other forms of reference may be added later