Canada. Department of National Defence. Directorate of Records : The Directorate of Records was created shortly after the First World War in order to arrange and manage the personnel records of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Completing the Book of Remembrance, replacing medals and the clearing of desertion charges were among its other duties. In addition, the Directorate's work centred on supplying information to the Department of Pensions and National Health, Returned Soldiers Organizations and the veterans themselves. In short, all questions affecting the war service of veterans.
At the outbreak of the Second World War the branch consisted of 43 military and civilian personnel, but eventually, due to the massive influx of records and files, blossomed to over a thousand personnel. During war the Directorate carried out numerous functions through its different sections, but most revolved around creating working lists of Canadian personnel serving in Canada and overseas. The Directorate's mandate was to prepare rapid and accurate statistics, nominal rolls, strength returns and general information regarding personnel in order to maintain administrative control of all Canada's military personnel. It was an enormous task and required a series of sections within the Directorate: the Machine Records section, which was to prepare a wide array of statistical returns; the Canadian Army Identification Bureau, which attempted to photograph and fingerprint all military personnel; the Discharge section, which recorded all discharged soldier's home addresses; the X-Ray section, which retained and preserved the x-rays of all military personnel; the Casualty Section, which was charged with reporting casualties and fatalities sustained by all ranks of the Canadian Army overseas. The work involved notification, by telegram or letter, of all Next-of-Kin residents in Canada, Newfoundland, USA, British West Indies and South America. The Next-of-Kin residing in the United Kingdom were alerted by the Canadian Record Office, London, England; Section B.3, which contained seven sub-sections largely double-checking all records for inaccuracies; and finally, an Honour and Awards section, which issued the War Service Badges for honourable discharges, the Enlistment Badge for personnel rejected for active service (from 28 February 1942 onward), and the Memorial Cross to mothers and widows of deceased Canadian servicemen.
An Order-in-Council (PC 811 of 26 February 1948) transferred many of the duties and operations of the Directorate of Records to the War Service Records Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Directorate of Records in National Defence continued to carry out its role of documenting the personnel of the Canadian Armed Forces and on authority of SD 1 Letter No. 63/29, dated 14 August 1963, the Directorate absorbed the Directorate of Personnel Statistics. Thereafter it remained responsible for all active military personnel records. RG24 General Inventory
