Polish Resettlement Corps Records: Trace a Relative in Britain
Polish Resettlement Corps records may connect a relative’s wartime service with settlement in Britain. Individual files, nominal rolls and camp records cover different aspects of that history. Our military research service identifies the relevant sources, compares the evidence and explains the person’s service and resettlement timeline in English.
What can Polish Resettlement Corps records reveal about your family?
PRC records can connect the military story preserved in family papers with the places where a relative began civilian life in Britain. A dated enlistment or discharge entry, camp address or named roll gives a specific event to investigate. We compare those clues across military and family records, so the report explains how the documents belong together.
Military identity
Names, birth details, rank and service references help connect a PRC entry with the right individual.
A dated transition
Enlistment, transfer and discharge entries can mark stages between wartime service and civilian life.
Places in Britain
A camp or hostel address can guide the next search for settlement and family evidence.
Origins in Poland
A birthplace or family detail can lead from the British papers to earlier Polish records.
How to find Polish Resettlement Corps records for a relative
- Gather the identity evidence: full name and variants, birth date, birthplace, service number and any PRC reference in family papers.
- Start with the personal military trail: use the MOD guide for Polish service records where the relative served under British command. Explain the PRC clue and the dates you want to investigate.
- Use catalogue rolls selectively: check the described group, rank, date range and access options before requesting a copy. A result about PRC officers will not necessarily cover a soldier of another rank.
- Follow the settlement location: retain the camp or hostel name and its date, then look for the relevant local and civil records.
- Compare identities across documents: treat a name match as provisional until birth details or other identifiers support it.
Polish Resettlement Corps lists and nominal rolls: searching for a name
A Polish Resettlement Corps list or nominal roll can place a named person within a particular group and period. We compare the entry with birth details, rank and service papers to identify the right relative. Different rolls cover different groups; a list or PDF needs to be read within its original archival scope, rather than treated as a register of every member.
For example, WO 315/28/7 at The National Archives concerns specified officers, pay matters and dates of enlistment in 1946-1948. It has not been digitised and is not a roll of every PRC member. We assess whether its coverage matches the person before including it in the investigation.
Polish Resettlement Corps records, camp addresses and civilian life
A camp address can be valuable even when the surviving service file is brief. Copy its exact name and date, including county or nearby town. A site may have changed function, so do not assume that a later hostel record describes the earlier military camp in the same way.
The guide to Polish resettlement camps and hostels covers this search in more detail. Civil events such as a birth or marriage can identify the family’s registration district; a later residence or employment record may lead to a different town. Keep those changes in the timeline rather than searching every source under a single camp name.
Reading PRC records: enlistment, transfer and discharge
An explicit dated PRC entry in a document is a stronger starting point than a family memory of living near a camp. Read the entry’s wording: enlistment, transfer and discharge describe different events. A PRC date alone does not establish a particular wartime posting, a pre-war home or a later citizenship decision.
For example, in a hypothetical family file, a service entry and a later British marriage record might share a birth date while using different spellings of a surname. Keep both spellings, verify the match and follow the birthplace into Polish records. Do not discard the marriage evidence merely because it omits a service number.
What was the Polish Resettlement Corps?
The Polish Resettlement Corps was formed by the British Government in 1946 for Polish servicemen in the West who could not or would not return to a Poland under Soviet control, with its borders moved westwards. Its members enlisted in the Corps while they prepared for civilian life in Britain.
Origins of the Polish Resettlement Corps
The Corps was set up to help Polish service personnel move into civilian life. The MOD’s account of post-war Polish resettlement treats it separately from the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, so a PRC paper dated before the Act does not contradict it.
Researching a relative who settled in Britain
If a relative served in the Polish forces and settled in Britain, our Polish military research service follows the service and resettlement evidence and explains it in English.
When was the Polish Resettlement Act?
The Polish Resettlement Act 1947 came after the Corps had been formed. It provided for Assistance Board allowances and accommodation, health services, education and emigration arrangements for the Poles it covered, and for service and discipline in certain Polish forces.
How many people were in the Polish Resettlement Corps?
Published totals need their date and definition: a number enrolled over time is not the same as the number present on a particular day. For family research, a dated service entry or a named roll is stronger evidence of membership than a general population estimate.
Linking military service and settlement
For family research, resettlement is useful because it joins two parts of a life that are often researched separately. A wartime unit or service number belongs beside the later camp, job and home address. Record the date of each clue before assuming that an address describes a long-term residence.
Military membership, residence in a hostel and later naturalisation are separate events. One does not automatically prove the others. Follow surviving documents in sequence, then use the UK naturalisation guide if the family’s question concerns a later change of citizenship.
Where to find Polish Resettlement Corps records
Start a search for Polish Resettlement Corps records by separating an individual’s service history from the records of the organisation. Keep the person’s full name, date of birth, service number, unit and any camp address together. These details help you test whether a document concerns your relative.
Individual Polish service files and organisational PRC records answer different questions. Our military research service identifies the relevant sources and connects military entries with later settlement evidence in Britain.
Administrative records can provide a different kind of evidence. The National Archives catalogue includes WO 315/28/7, an example of PRC officers’ nominal rolls and enlistment information. It is not digitised and is not a complete list of everyone who joined the Corps. Check each catalogue description for its coverage and access options.
From PRC records to a relative’s civilian life in Britain
Keep camp names, British addresses and employment details alongside the military papers. A reference to the PRC is a lead to investigate; record its date and the document it appears on before assuming it describes the whole of a person’s service.
For an individual file, consult the guide to UK-held Polish service records. GOV.UK’s application guidance includes Polish personnel who served with British forces in the Second World War.
Dating Polish Resettlement Corps records and the 1947 Act
The National Archives’ introduction to post-war migration (PDF) gives the background for reading papers dated before the Polish Resettlement Act 1947.