The smallest will?

On the back of this tiny photograph is the smallest of all soldiers' wills, and perhaps the smallest Scottish will of any period, measuring a mere 42 x 63 mm (National Archives of Scotland ref: SC70/8/921/34). Private Thomas Walker, 2nd battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, wrote his will on 3 May 1918, just a few weeks before he was killed in action in France on 28 June 1918. The person he names as his beneficiary, Mrs Brown of Dumfries, was probably his sister. Soldiers often nominated their mothers or another female relative.

Between 2003 and 2005 the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) catalogued and began conserving two fragile series of records which had come to the NAS from the Commissary Office in Edinburgh. These are the testaments of Scottish servicemen who died between 1857 and 1966. Many of them were soldiers and airmen who gave their lives in two world wars. This rich but almost unknown archive offers a fresh perspective on the sacrifice of more than 30,000 ordinary Scots at war, ranging from the height of the Raj to the end of the British Empire. These wills are being digitised.

The testaments themselves are formal documents, often quite short and hastily written, but many afford glimpses of the men who left them, because they contain moving letters, poems and prayers.

To find the will of a soldier or airman go to our guide to soldiers' and airmen's wills.