Personnel records of the Second World War
Over 1.1 million Canadians served during the Second World War (1939 to 1945). Different types of records document their service. On this page you will learn what records exist and how to access them.
Service files contain personal information.
There are still a number of living veterans of the Second World War. Only files for service members who died in service between 1939 and 1947 are open and available to the public. See If the person survived the war for information on how to access other records.
On this page
Before you start
Gather useful information for your search or request:
- Names (person you are looking for, parents, spouse)
- Date of birth or approximate year of birth
- Place of birth
- Date of death (if applicable)
- What branch the person served in: Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, or Veterans Guard of Canada
If the person survived the war
These files are closed and not available on our website. Personnel records often include sensitive information, like medical records, and sometimes judicial records. Before LAC can release the information, a proof of death is required. If the individual is still alive, they must provide consent for access to their personal information. This is to protect the privacy of individuals who served.
To request these files, you need to submit an access to information or privacy (ATIP) request. Use the ATIP assistant to determine what type of request to submit. See About the records for a description of which files were retained and which were not.
If the person was killed in or died during the war
These service files are open. These records include individuals who
- were killed in action
- died as a result of accident, illness or injury while in service
- died in 1946 or 1947 of injuries related to service
To view these records, search Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947.
Search tips
Names
Start with a simple search with just the person’s name.
- If you don’t find a reference,
- Try searching by last name only. Some entries only have an initial instead of a full first name or middle name.
- Try the * wildcard character, for example, Fran* for Frank, Francis, François.
- Try spelling variations, as names can be written different ways. The entries reflect the spelling of names as they appear in the files.
- If the person survived the war, they are not in the database due to privacy reasons. See If the person survived the war for help with these files.
Other tips
- In Date, you can enter the year of death or a range of years.
- In Service number, enter the person’s number without a dash or space after the letter, for example, R88087.
- Army officers did not have service numbers. They were identified by their name and rank only.
- Some files were indexed with additional details relating to place of birth and enlistment. Those details appear in our database entries in the Extra Information field. To search that field, select Any of these words in the keyword search dropdown and enter relevant keywords.
- These details are limited, so you may not get many results if you enter something in those fields.
- You will see a menu of search term limiters, which you can use to filter your results.
- Not every record contains every piece of information—for example, the limiter “Branch” provides results for all 44,092 records, but the limiter “Enlistment country” only has 1,490 results, as no enlistment country information was entered for the other records.
About the records
The service files are part of the Department of National Defence fonds (record group 24 and R112).
They include the files of members of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). There are also a few files for individuals who served with militia units in Newfoundland.
RCAF members are included if they flew with Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons but did not transfer to the RAF. The files of those who did transfer to the RAF are held by the Ministry of Defence in the U.K.
The records contain the personal information of members during their time in service. The exact documents will be different depending on the branch of service. The files can include enlistment papers, medical records, training files and discharge documents, which may contain details such as
- military units they served with (Canadian Army)
- names of ships they served on (Royal Canadian Navy)
- squadrons they served with (Royal Canadian Air Force)
- medal entitlements
- cause of death, burial details and estate records
For help reading the records, see Military abbreviations used in service files.
This collection does not include the following files:
- Individuals called up for service during the Second World War who never enrolled
- Individuals rejected for active service on medical grounds
- Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served with the British Forces; these files are held by the Ministry of Defence in the U.K.
- Canadians who enlisted in the armed forces of other countries
- Americans who joined the Canadian Forces, then transferred back to the American Forces and died while in service with them
- Individuals who served in the Merchant Marine; see our Merchant Marine page for more details
- Members of the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers (1942–1945)
Access the records
Closed files
All files for service members who survived the war are closed. You will need to make an ATIP request for these files. Use the ATIP assistant to determine what type of request to submit.
Open files
The files of members who died in service between 1939 and 1947 are open and available. They can be downloaded from Collection search by clicking on the downward-facing arrow icon on the top right or bottom of the viewer.
All the database entries include a digital “genealogy package.” This is a selection of the most relevant documents from the person’s service file highlighting their service. Since the files can contain hundreds of pages (some of it repetitive), very few files contain the full file. About 1600 files have complete or partial files that were previously digitized.
If you wish to see the full file, you can order copies or see the full file in person. You can also hire a researcher.
Important notes about ordering copies:
- Before ordering a file, check to see if the full file is included. It would be a second file attached to the Collection search record.
- These files can contain hundreds of pages. LAC does not provide pre-order page counts.
- When filling out the order form,
- under Item description: title, enter “War Dead - Second World War service file.”
- under Reference Number, enter the name, service number or rank (for officers), reference and volume number from the collection search record. Examples:
- Doris Ann Nichols, W20570, RG24, volume 26708
- Jean Pierre Antoine Normandin, Captain, R112, volume 30572
- Under Additional Information, enter the following:
- "I have viewed the digitized genealogy package in the database. I wish to order a copy of the portion of the file that is not digitized."