How do I search The Gazette?
The best way search notices and publications is by heading to the All notices section of the website. From there, notices and publications can be searched for in several ways:
- by text – you can search for names, exact words, phrases, or a combination of terms
- by notice type – this allows you to just search for the type of notices you’re interested in
- by notice code – each notice type has its own unique four-digit notice code to make searching easier
- by location – including the local authority, place or post code
- by date – as our archives date back to 1665, using a date range will greatly increase your chance of success
- by edition – you can search by edition (London, Edinburgh or Belfast) as well as issue number if you know it
Notice type, notice code and location searches should only be used if you are searching for notices that were published from 1998 onwards. Text, date and edition searches can be used for notices and publications before 1998. This is because data from 1998 onwards was created from extensible markup language (XML), allowing all filters to be used to search and refine results from this data.
Please note there is a separate search function for company profiles on The Gazette.
How to search for awards and honours
When searching for individuals who have received an award, the best place to start is the awards and accreditation notices page.
To find awards published before 1998, select Include supplements.
You’ll also need to select Include supplements to find the following notice types, regardless of when they were published:
- Ministry of Defence
- King's Awards for Enterprise
- King's Awards for Voluntary Service
- The Queen's Anniversary Prizes
- Operational Honours and Awards
- Commonwealth Honours lists
If you want to find recipients of a certain award, use the Honours and Awards search function to narrow your search. Please note that MBEs, OBEs and CBEs are ranks in the Order of the British Empire and most recent knighthoods were appointments as a Knights Bachelor.
Unfortunately, we cannot confirm that knighthoods, other than those invested directly by the sovereign, were gazetted pre-1922.
How to search for insolvency notices
From 1998
When searching for insolvency notices from 1998 onwards, the best place to start is the insolvency notices page:
- If searching for an insolvent person, start by ticking Show none under the Corporate Insolvency search filter, which will remove all these insolvencies from your search, leaving only personal insolvencies in your results.
- When searching for an insolvent business, start by ticking Show none under the Personal Insolvency search filter, which will remove all these insolvencies from your search, leaving only corporate insolvencies in your results.
Before 1998
To search for insolvency notices before 1998, you will need to use the text search on the All notices page.
How to search for deceased estates notices
From 1998
When searching for deceased estates notices from 1998 onwards, the best place to start is the wills and probate notices page. You can narrow down your searches by:
- Adding a date of death, if known.
- Spelling the deceased’s full name exactly.
- Adding a location on your search.
Please note a claim expiry date is the final deadline for creditors or interested parties to come forward with financial or legal claims against an estate (usually set at 2 months and 1 day or more from publication).
Search deceased estates notices
Before 1998
To search for deceased estates notices before 1998, you will need to use the text search on the All notices page.
How to search for company information
The Gazette also contains information about every company registered at Companies House. There is a separate search function for these company profiles where you can search a company by:
- Company name
- Company number
- Location
- Industry type (SIC code)
- Incorporation date
What else do I need to know when searching The Gazette?
Text searches
When using a text search, you can search names, exact words, phrases, or a combination of terms. For example:
- use "double quote marks" to find notices containing exact phrases
- use AND to find notices containing both words
- use OR to find notices containing either word
- use NOT to find notices containing a word but not another
- combine any of the above for complex searches
It should be noted that minor spelling errors or variations during text search can cause search failures.
Name searches
Name formatting is not consistent throughout the history of The Gazette and names could have been gazetted in several different ways, for example:
- “John David Jones”
- “John D. Jones”
- “J. D. Jones”
- “J. David Jones”
- “John Jones”
Although this may be time-consuming, searching with all the above is the only way to be sure you haven't missed an individual.
Soldiers, promotions and medals
When searching for a soldier using the text search your success depends on the style used to gazette them at the time. For example, often no first name is used, just the initial and the soldier's surname.
However, there are certain fields of information that were usually included in The Gazette for a soldier:
- name
- rank
- regiment
- date
- regimental service number (pre-1920) - note that often soldiers would move regiments and have a new service number assigned to them
- service number (post-1920)
The Gazette has a dedicated search area for World War I and World War II.
Searches not recognising archive text
The Gazette search uses optical character recognition (OCR) to convert scanned documents into machine readable text format, so that your text-based searches show the most relevant results.
While usually successful, there can be errors when you search, due to the limitations of the process and the age and quality of the material that was scanned.
It is worth noting the use of “Olde English” ligatures (such as the long S which resembles an 'f') is not recognised by the OCR engine. Other known anomalies include misinterpretation of punctuation marks and confusion between l, i and l, 0 and O etc.
There are a few periods (known to include 1689 to 1711, 1766 to 1770, 1796 to 1819 (Edinburgh) and 1880 to 1893 (Edinburgh)) during which it may not possible to perform a text search. However, The Gazette issues themselves can still be found and their content viewed.
Missing Gazette notices
Some issues of The Gazette have not been digitised and this could affect your search. Check the Missing Gazette issues page for a list of all those that are missing, by issue number and date range.
Date inconsistencies
It's worth noting that search results are ordered by the printed date of publication, rather than the published sequence. This is especially important to bear in mind for pre-1752 issues when the calendar year started on 25 March due to an error in the old Julian calendar.
For example, February 1715 is put in 'date order' ahead of June 1715 (as the calendar year is now), even though February 1715 is in fact later than April to December 1715, because the year did not change again until 25 March. However, issue numbers are in order.
Need more help searching The Gazette?
If you need more help searching The Gazette's extensive archives, The Gazette Research Service could help you find what you're looking for. Our team of experts will complete an exhaustive and thorough search of our archives and indexes for a small charge.
To send us your request, please complete this PDF form and send it to customer.services@thegazette.co.uk. You can also call us on 0333 200 2434, or post your completed form to: The Gazette, PO Box 3584, Norwich, NR7 7WD
For any other queries, please contact our customer services team.