A huge collection of First World War medal and award citations, with details of six million servicemen and women, is being published online for the first time.

Family history website Ancestry.co.uk includes details of the British War Medal, Allied Victory Medal, 1914 Star, Territorial Force War Medal and Allied Subjects Medal.

Most First World War medals were awarded to soldiers, but the collection also details recipients of the Allied Victory Medal, given to those who served in their own capacity alongside the troops in the trenches.

They included Reverend Theodore Hardy, originally turned down by the Army for being too old, but accepted as chaplain for the Lincolnshire Regiment and posted to France in 1916. Two years later he was killed after crossing into no-man's land under heavy fire while attempting to rescue wounded comrades.

Famous names in the collection include author AA Milne and sculptor Henry Moore.

Miriam Silverman, senior UK content manager from Ancestry, said: "From the thousands of brave young men who went over the top at the Somme, to fearless field nurses tending to severely wounded soldiers, this collection immortalises millions of servicemen and women who won the British victory in the Great War."