Records Here, Records There, Records Gone.

Looking for military records associated with World War One and the Caribbean throws up a number of challenges. The location of St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla and the political and economic associations of the time present opportunities for population movement. These can be from island to island, island to the United Kingdom, island to Canada and island to United States and island to central America principally Panama. Added to this a number of records have disappeared or have been destroyed.

British Army Records after 1913

Army non-commissioned officers and other ranks
Due to German bombing during Worlds War 2 some 60% of service records were destroyed at the beginning of World War 2. On the night of the 7th/8th September 1940 the War Office Record Store in Arnside Street, Walworth, London SE17 was hit by incendiary bombs during a heavy German air-raid. The resulting fire destroyed the greater part of the 1,400 tons of War Office records which were held there. Approximately two thirds of soldiers' service records were completely destroyed and those which survived were partly charred or water damaged when the fire was extinguished; the surviving records became known as the series WO 363 'burnt documents or burnt collation'.

Some army service records were stored off site for pension claim purposes.

Surviving records have been microfilmed and can be viewed at the Public Record Office, Kew, London
Non commissioned officers and other ranks, First World War, WO 363, WO364 and WO400.
Service Records are also available via the genealogy website http://home.ancestry.co.uk/ for a fee.

Army Officers records.
First World War Regular Army and Emergency Reserve Officers were registered with a 'Long Number' in series, WO 339, with index to long numbers, WO338 that is used to find army officers service records. 
First World War Temporary commissions and Territorial Army Officers, are recorded in series WO 374.

I have managed to find some of the Service Records of the men named on the St. Kitts War Memorial which has helped provide some pieces of the jig-saw puzzle.