British Biography

The Naval Chronicle .... Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom; With a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects… London: J. Gold, etc. 1799-1818.
Perkins Special Collections X-Per N318 (40 vols.)
The general and particular indices in each volume includes promotions and appointments, gazette letters, births, marriages, and deaths. No general index. Cumulative indices of portraits and memoirs are in Vols. 24 (1810) and 28 (1812). Vol. 9 (1803) has a list of the officers of the navy. Vols. 2-5, 11-12, and 38-40 list naval ships, usually with historical data including a chronological record of each ship's captains.

The United Service Magazine, with Which Are Incorporated the Army Navy Magazine and Naval and Military Journal. London: H.Colburn, etc. 1829-1920. (see successive continuing titles from catalog link above)
Perkins Special Collections Library Service Center, Rare Books (Reading Room only) 355.05 U58E
Library has 1829-1863.
Reported appointments, promotions, births, deaths, marriages, and ships in commission, including names of their commanding officers with dates of their commissions along with considerable army and navy news. Volume indices cite only a limited number of the personal references, and the books here are not indexed after 1850.

Army and Navy Registers and Biographical Works

These books, especially the biographical ones, are a major source of information. They can be located easily in the online catalog under the following subject headings:

Great Britain---Army---Biography
Great Britain---Army---Registers
India---Army---Biography
India---Army---Registers

Many of the non-military books in this bibliography also include naval and military personnel.