Military scrapbook ideas for a person's years of service
Follow the service in order: training, each posting or ship, deployments and coming home. Photograph medals and badges instead of gluing them, and check what may be shown before sharing.
Start with the service record or discharge papers if the family has them. They give the dates and units that put the photographs in order.
Ask the person who served before choosing pages, if you can. Some want a deployment covered in detail; others want it left as a date and a place.
Letters home are often the best material and the most private. Read them with whoever owns them before deciding which lines, if any, leave the envelope.
Make the memory book together
Invite people to send photos and their own words, then choose what goes in the book.
Questions for the person who served
- Why did you join, and who did you tell first?
- What do you remember about the first week of training?
- Which posting would you go back to, and why?
- Who was in your section or crew, and where are they now?
- What did a normal day look like on your first posting?
- What did you carry that was not on the kit list?
- What did you write home about, and what did you leave out?
- Which photograph here needs explaining, and what does it show?
- Which of these medals means most to you, and what was it for?
- What did you do on your first day back home?
Order the book by posting, not by year
A career moves between bases, ships and units, and each move changes the people in the photographs. Make each posting a chapter with its dates, location and unit.
Training opens the book: the passing-out or graduation photograph, the kit list, the first uniform. The later postings follow it in order.
- Write the unit name in full once, then use the short form.
- Use rank and uniform details as clues to check against dated records, rather than as proof of a date.
- Keep courses and qualifications on one page rather than scattering them.
Photograph medals, badges and patches
Glue and tape damage ribbon and enamel, and a mounted medal cannot go back in its case. Photograph it on a plain dark cloth in daylight, front and reverse.
Some medals carry a name and number on the rim or reverse. Capture it for the family record, then decide whether a shared copy shows it.
- Lay ribbons flat; a creased ribbon photographs as a different shade.
- Photograph a cloth badge beside a ruler for scale.
- Keep the originals boxed in a dry place, labelled with the photograph's reference.
Check what can be shown
A person's agreement does not establish that a service image is cleared for sharing. For recent service, check the relevant service's publication guidance before making a shared copy.
Recent service needs more care than old service. Leave out anything that says where someone is now or where they are going next.
- Keep any material with uncertain release status out of the shared copy.
- Ask before including another serviceperson's photograph; cropping does not settle other restrictions.
- Remove service numbers and home addresses from scanned envelopes.
Letters home and the people waiting
Scan each letter front and back with its envelope, which carries the postmark and often the forces address. Keep the reply beside it if it survived.
Give the family at home a spread of their own: a calendar with days crossed off, a drawing sent out in a parcel, the homecoming photograph.
Separate the record from the shared page
Give each item a reference, date source and sharing status in a private list. Mark a guessed identification as unconfirmed. Build shared pages only from items cleared for that audience.
Pages to make
Training
Open with the passing-out photograph beside the first uniform, kit list or joining letter. Add the dates and where the training took place.
One posting
A wide photograph of the base, ship or barracks, a group picture from the unit and a hand-drawn map, with the posting's dates under the map.
Away and at home
A letter home on the left and the family's photographs from the same month on the right, so both sides of the same weeks sit together.
Medals and the last day
Photographed medals on a dark ground with what each was awarded for, where known. Finish with the last day in uniform or the first day out of it.
Questions
What should go in a military scrapbook?
Training, each posting in order, deployments, letters home, photographed medals and badges, and the homecoming or last day. A service record helps place each photograph.
Can I put real medals in a scrapbook?
Better not. Glue and pressure harm ribbons and enamel. Photograph each one front and back and keep the originals boxed, labelled with the same reference.
How do I make one for someone still serving?
Ask them to check current service release guidance before collecting or sharing material. A private book, cropping or personal agreement does not override those requirements.