Charmion thanks for your input, I appreciate your help. As a starting point Forces War Records sets itself up as THE place to search.

It states on the first page that:

"Forces War Records is the definitive location for military genealogical records from WW2, WW1, Boer War, Crimean war and beyond. Our Military record site is the ONLY (their capitals)location where you can find military records of over 4 million British Armed Forces personnel exclusively cross matched with over 4000 regiments"

The cost of membership ranges from £8.95 for a month to £85.95 for a year.

If, like me, you are unable to find any trace of three generations of your family who served from WW1 through WW2 and beyond it is a waste of money.

However you HAVE to subscribe in order to find out that they do not have the records pertaining to your family. A nice "catch 22" situation for them.

I am of the opinion that the site is not fit for purpose and consider it only reasonable that I bring this to the attention of a wider audience.

Cheers