National Archives holds records of Australian servicemen and women from the First World War.

Service records are primary sources that set out key points of information about a person's war service. Like all records held by National Archives, war service records are government records.

A service record from the First World War will usually include:

1. An attestation paper – form completed on enlistment, listing personal particulars
2. A service and casualty form – form detailing movements, promotions and injuries
3. Military correspondence – letters between the department of defence and the service person's next-of-kin.

This activity requires students to handle high-resolution copies of service records from the First World War.

Approximately 10 pages from each original record has been selected to provide students with a snapshot of the serviceperson's life before, during, and after the war.

The Teacher' Notes: Biographies of Service People PDF under printable resources provides you with a summary of each serviceperson's life. You can use this resource to prepare yourself to support each group in their exploration of the war service records. These biographies can also be provided to students after the activity, so they can corroborate their findings from the records with a secondary source of information.

These service records are provided as PDFs under printable resources. National Archives wishes to advise that Service Record 1 includes the name of an Aboriginal person who has died.

Some of the service records contain content that students may find difficult or distressing. Service Records 1 and 2 include records that reveal how the Anzacs' mental health was impacted by their war service. National Archives recommends that you lead a discussion about how our understanding of mental health conditions, including language used to describe them, has changed over time. Students should also be given the opportunity to safely debrief about this topic.

This is an intentionally screen-free activity. Students view paper copies of the records to simulate the experience of accessing authentic archival records. This approach promotes rich engagement with the records as primary sources.

Service records from the First World War can be viewed digitally on RecordSearch.

In further activities, there are suggestions for how students can take their learning further by accessing digitised records and conducting online research.

1. Divide students into small groups of three or four, allocating each group the materials listed under essential resources;
2. Introduce the activity to students. You may like to follow this script –

Today we are going to look at primary sources from the First World War. Soon, you will be asked to open your folder. Inside the folder is the war service record of a real Australian Anzac.

Everyone who served in the First World War has their own service record. These records are made up of forms, documents, and official letters. The real records are kept safe by National Archives of Australia – your folder contains copies of the originals.

Your task today is to find out as much as you can about the person whose service record you have been given. The primary sources in your folder are like puzzle pieces that fit together to tell the story of your Anzac's life before, during, and after the war.

Your group has been given a 'Mystery Anzac' poster to record details of what you discover about your Anzac from their service record. On this poster, your Anzac has been represented by a silhouette. By the end of this activity, you will have surrounded the silhouette with information you've uncovered about your Anzac.

Please open your folders now and take out the top record. What do you notice about it?

(Accept a range of responses)

This record is an attestation paper – a form that all service people had to fill in when they enlisted (signed up) to join the war. This form alone is a rich source of information about your Anzac.

Today we are going to reference all the information we uncover. You'll notice that this page is numbered as page 1. So, if you've already noticed that your Anzac's name is on this form– remember to reference on your poster that you got this information from page 1.

You may find this form and the other records in your folder challenging to read. The handwriting is old and hard to decipher. Printed text might appear blurry or faded. You'll also encounter unfamiliar terms, and language that isn't commonly used today.

(Hold up a copy of the list of common abbreviations) This list of common abbreviations will help you work out what some of the unfamiliar language means. However, it's okay not to understand everything. Primary sources aren't supposed to be easy. Your job today is to look closely at these very old records, discuss what you see together, and learn what you can from them.

(Hold up the post-it notes). Each group has also been given a block of post-it notes to record questions and wonderings. There might be details about your Anzac's life that you want to find out, but the records aren't telling you. Or you might see a word that you can't decode, even with the help of the list of abbreviations.

Please write these questions down on a post-it note and stick them in the middle of the silhouette. At the end of this activity, we'll talk more about the questions we asked of our records.

This is a team activity. You have 25 minutes to work together on discovering who your Anzac was based on their service record. Your time begins now.

3. Allow ten minutes at the end of your lesson for a whole class discussion. You may like to use some or all of the following questions:
   1. Introduce your Anzac. What stood out to you as significant about his/her story?
   2. How was your Anzac impacted by their service, both during and after the war?
   3. What questions do you still have about your Anzac? (refer to your post-its notes)
   4. What did you find challenging about working with war service records?
   5. What do you think was the best part about working with war service records?
   6. What did these war service records not tell you about your serviceperson? What other primary or secondary sources related to their life would you like to locate? Where might you be able to look for these additional sources?
   7. Read this short biography of your Anzac. (found in Teacher's Notes: Biographies of Service People). Compare your findings with the information given here. What similarities and differences do you see between the primary and secondary sources?

You can find it on RecordSearch. To locate their digitised record, begin by entering their service number into 'basic search'. You can find their service number on the front page of the printed service record that you explored with your group.  You will also notice their service number printed on most of the pages within the service record.

Why do you think these records have been digitised? Who might be interested in accessing these records? Aside from your Anzac, is there anybody else you would like to find the service record of?

If you would like to find someone whose service number you do not have, use NameSearch and select 'World War I' as the category of record. Note that your search results may include others with the same name. Knowledge of your Anzac's place of birth (POB) will help you select the correct record to view.

Access Research a Soldier to see what you can find about your service person in the Australian War Memorial. Their collection includes art, photographs, and private records (e.g. personal letters and diaries).

What similarities and differences do you see between this collection and the national archival collection? Why is it important to access more than one collection when conducting historical research?

You might like to write a short story, letter or diary entry from the perspective of your Anzac or their next-of-kin. This response should be inspired by details you uncovered in their service record.

This activity included the service record of Caleb Shang, a Chinese-Australian Anzac. He was one of at least 276 Chinese Australians who served in the First World War.

Develop inquiry questions as a whole class about the topic of Chinese Australians' war service before accessing online sources of information on the topic, such as the Chinese Museum's WWI Chinese Anzacs page.

This activity included the service record of Douglas Grant, who was one of more than 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who served in the First World War.

Develop inquiry questions as a whole class about the topic of First Australians war service before accessing online sources of information on the topic, such as the AIATSIS 'serving their country' page.