An explosion of interest in genealogy has led to the site being deluged by relatives curious to uncover the poignant records of 5.5m servicemen.

For more than 80 years countless individual acts of bravery, often by junior ranks, have lain forgotten because of the obstacles that faced amateur researchers. Until today they have had to travel to the National Archives in Kew, west London, to find the records.

Now the National Archives internet database offers the first comprehensive roll-call of all soldiers and airmen who fought overseas. Royal Navy records may be added later.

Among medal cards on the database are those of the future Duke of Windsor, Winston Churchill, Wilfred Owen, the war poet, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the composer.

The database also includes the details of 84 privates called Tommy Atkins. Previous sources usually concentrated on soldiers who died or on officers, sidelining the millions of other ranks who returned from the front.

Medal cards reveal only basic details of service record and medals. About 60% of the full individual service records, which were stored separately, were destroyed by second world war bombing.

Although the site was still running only on a trial basis last week, it had received 1.5m hits, 30% from overseas.

The charge for downloading an image of an individual’s card is £3.50, but few have done this. The site is at www.DocumentsOnline.nationalarchives.gov.uk

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