Tracing Commissioned Officers
It
should not necessarily be particularly startling to find that overwhelmingly
there are more records devoted to commissioned officers than any others in
naval service. It might be more surprising though to learn that records
recognised as service sheets (in the modern sense) were not generally available, even for officers, until the mid
nineteenth century. And, even when they were produced, they remained rather
haphazard and often missing much. Nevertheless, there are numerous other
records that can be studied, but it must be pointed out that these were working
documents for administrative uses and are therefore, not necessarily laid out
in a manner at all helpful to 21st century genealogists. And, the
changes in record keeping do not fit neatly in either with the arithmetic
notation of centuries, or even major historical events. As breaks are required,
if only to stop this becoming too unwieldy, it will be split into three
covering relatively logical historical periods. These will detail the
introduction of types of documents and consequently noted when these were
discontinued, changed, or where there are material gaps. It should be kept in
mind that the following is generally laid out in relation to when records were
raised and not the period they necessarily deal with. So, those looking for
service during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars should also look at the
section on ‘Pax Britannica’.
From around the Restoration of the 1660s to the
end of the Napoleonic Wars 1815
When
researching commissioned officers in the R.N. and incidentally, also the Royal
Marines, frequently the official Navy
List
is the first place to look. Unfortunately for this exercise, it appeared only
at the very end of this long period in 1814. Of course, there had been Steel’s Original and Correct List of the Royal Navy
and Honourable East-India Company’s Shipping; a
private publication since 1782. But, there are severe limitations in this,
especially since there are no alphabetical listings. And, there had been
monthly disposition ‘List Books’ kept for ships and naming officers from 1673,
but as these are compiled by geographic regions they are not good starting
points. Incidentally, apparently largely through the efforts of the great
reformer Samuel Pepys, there were also various listings and drafts of service
for officers from as early as the 1650s variously through to the 1750s. Mostly
these deal with senior figures, but there are some for lieutenants. Compiled in
a number of ways and not the handiest of documents, these may be of use and interest after more of their
service has been unearthed.
Nevertheless,
there has been a great deal of study of the
R.N.’s officer corps resulting in numerous publications and giving listings of
sea officers’ careers for this early era. Both the
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the Public Records Office, Kew have
collections of these. Perhaps the generally useful is The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy,
1660-1815.
There
are three versions of this. Originally it was published through the N.M.M. in
1954 and essentially showed officers’ names alphabetically with ranks and dates
of seniority. Subsequently this was materially worked on by Cdr. C.G. Pitcairn
Jones, in that he added appointments as found in disposition lists. This latter
form is to be found both at the N.M.M. and T.N.A. In 1994 the Royal Naval
Records Society issued another version of this, in the format of the original
1954 N.M.M. publication, but apparently updated to some degree. So, it may be useful to consult all currently available
versions. However, it should be pointed that that there are errors and omissons in this and sometimes they are significant.
Additionally, there are a number of other manuscript sources, copies of which
are to be found in the T.N.A..’s library. It should be
realised that this on its own will not create a full record of any officer’s
career though.
While
the above will give some information after
gaining commissions, nothing of earlier sea time will be shown. Samuel Pepys’
revolutionary requirement of examination for lieutenancy that has already been
mentioned within the historical essay in the main guide can therefore be used.
The resulting passings
certificates
show service up to the point of qualifying for this rank. Arranged in
chronological order, even using The
Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815 there could still be
problem locating some particular
individuals. However, here too an extensive alphabetical catalogue has been produced
to aid researchers. Compiled by Bruno Pappalardo as
the Royal Navy Lieutenants’ Passing
Certificates 1691-1902 and published through
the List & Index Society, Kew in 2001, a copy of the two volumes can be
found within the Supplementary Finding Aids area in the research enquiry room,
at the T.N.A. Kew.
A
search of records relating to commissions (from the 1690s) with
the aid of the various typescripts and card index system on T.N.A.’s shelves in
what used to be the research enquiries room, may yield
dates of commissions and other snippets. It should be pointed out that these
documents follow numerous different types, compiled in differing ways and
hardly ever contain the actual commissions themselves. Some are indexed
internally and simple to use, others are not indexed and difficult to use.
Similarly, registers of temporary or acting appointments can give similar
information. Some of this can be very interesting, covering all sorts of
situations individuals found themselves in. But, these only really begin in the
very early 1800s for most, with those for the impress service and sea fencibles for the 1790s.
Applications
for employment
are another potential way of adding information including home addresses.
Surviving entry books for commissioned officers (below flag rank) cover 1673 to
1689; with a long break until 1799 to 1818 for lieutenants; and 1801 to 1803
for commanders and captains.
Although
really belonging in the next era, entries of candidates
for promotion
for naval cadets at the Royal Naval College from 1811; and for lieutenants,
mates and midshipmen from 1814 may explain why individuals did not manage to continue in the
service.
Also,
relating to the massive demobilisation on the conclusion of the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars from 1817 to 1851 there were a number of surveys of the sea officers that had been serving.
There having been no proper system for collating personnel information (other
from Navy Pay Office records), these were questionnaires. While not complete by
any means and not necessarily entirely accurate in places, these can be of real
use: mostly of service until 1815. One particular survey carried out in 1846
though shows service up until this year and entries can be very detailed indeed. Alternatively, some analyses were compiled directly
from these surveys and may show information pertinent to officers serving
during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Certificates
of service
are not generally apparent until around 1802 and even then not for commissioned
officers. But, there is a series for midshipmen and mates passing for
lieutenancy that stretch as far back as 1744 - although with gaps.
Overwhelmingly these only show service until the time of issue, so are of
limited use - even if they are the original certificates. The early 19th
century entry books of certificates again mostly deal with midshipmen and
mates, but there are also those for mates and sub-lieutenants as candidates for
lieutenancy.
Succession
books,
produced primarily to show who were appointed to particular men-o-war at any
one time, can be used to build up service histories for individuals. A
relatively time consuming exercise although most are indexed both by ships’ and
officers’ names. It must be stressed that coverage is patchy, even if some go
back as far as 1673.
Navy
Pay Office records, particularly full
pay
ledgers can also be used for constructing commissioned officers’ careers, but
with one two year exception not before 1795. Incidentally, it was from these
that the certificates of service were produced. In an era long before pensions
were common in society, lists of officers (without appointments) on half pay
reach all the way back to the 1660s for the most senior, with more junior
officers coming on stream in time. But, there are gaps and they are not
necessarily easy to use: being highly technical so that only those au fait with the complexities of naval accounting
practices will be liable to understand them. Nevertheless, of those delving
into these, some are in seniority order, others in are in alphabetical order,
and can be indexed and non-indexed. 1873. Half
pay for
unemployed commissioned officers was introduced from admirals in the 1660s to
lieutenants in the 1690s.
Also,
leave was granted to officers for a number of reasons. Those on half pay could
be allowed foreign travel, or service on merchant vessels, or alternatively
those with active commissions could be legally absented from duty. Surviving leave books from 1783 can for this period be either in
chronological, or rough alphabetical and chronological order (depending on
type).
If
for any reason the trail in a commissioned officer’s career goes cold, as a
last resort one might want to consult the musters and pay books of a known man-o-war
or two. This should not normally be
needed, but may just be of use.
Having
mentioned pensions slightly earlier, it should be noted that as early as the 17th
century the monarch’s navy had various schemes: State funded or contributory.
For commissioned officers basically there were three types, although they also
had to pay contributions to the Chatham
Chest. This
benefited the widows of warrant officers and the people and is an interesting
point of social responsibility. All in naval service were
deducted 1s. per month for this; only 6d. going to the charity; with 4d. being
paid to the chaplain and 2d. to the surgeon. (I have
been unable to work out what happened on smaller vessels without chaplains.)
On
the authority of Orders in Council, the Admiralty (through the Navy Pay Office)
paid pensions to individuals, or classes of officers, charged to the Navy
Estimates and ultimately taken out of taxation. By 1673 these included those to
widows of officers killed in action, or
consequential of their service; for commissioned
officers wounded; and superannuation to some captains. The latter pensions were added for
the thirty most senior lieutenants in 1737; and to ‘yellow’ admirals (that is a
limited number of post-captains who while at the top of the seniority list,
were retired in order to allow younger and more able officers to reach flag
rank) from 1747. (It should be noted that wound pay would be paid in addition
to the superannuation for these officers.)
Then
there was the Compassionate Fund from 1809 and later
known as the Compassionate List. Administered through the Admiralty, this again
was again funded through Parliament and was paid to the dependents, but
especially orphans, of sea officers where there was no other provision. These registers not only give some details of the service on the
dead officers themselves, but also place and dates of marriages and some
information on the claimants.
In
practice many of the above records merely relate to payments and no differentiation
is made between one type and another. Although referred to obliquely by
Professor Rodger in relation to one type of records, naval estimates can be of real use in this. There are two varieties of these
in manuscript form at T.N.A.. But, the most logical
way of dealing with the problem of identifying exactly which pensions
individual sea officers (or their dependents) were awarded is to find a copy of
the printed final versions of the estimates as put before Parliament. These can
be found in various sources.
The
third scheme was through the Charity
for payment of Pensions to the Widows of Sea Officers and was partially
contributory, at a compulsory rate of 3d. in the pound
of officers’ pay (the other funding coming from parliamentary grant). Pensions
were awarded to the widows of all sea officers who were judged poor, no matter how their husbands had died. Two
types of record dealing with this survive from the 1730s onwards.
Technically
commissioned officers’ children (especially those orphaned) could gain entry to
the Greenwich Hospital School, which opened in its
first guise c.1716 as part of this charity’s activities. Nevertheless, this practice
for officers’ offspring is said to have become increasingly rare as the 18th
century wore on. Apparently there are no surviving records for the 17th
century. On a slight tangent, Greenwich Hospital that later in took in mariners
seemingly almost entirely from the people, also
awarded pensions to and there are also records relating to the very limited
number of out
pensions
for commissioned officers from 1814 onwards. Certainly by the Napoleonic Wars
at any one time there were also places for a literally a handful of
commissioned officers as ‘in’ pensioners, but up to now I have not been able to
find any reference to these in surviving records.
For
all those who were killed in action, or died of wounds, there were bounties
paid to their next of kin (not just widows), if claimed, from 1675. Known as the ‘Royal
Bounty’ this equated to one off payments of one year’s wages
with additional sums if married with
children. Unfortunately, there are gaps in the surviving records though
- 1694-1703, 1712-19, 1723-46 and 1753 to 1804. And, unless I am missing some
salient information these can be far from easy documents to navigate through.
In
relation to widows’ claims for pensions there is a series of marriage and death certificates along with confirmatory
documents running between 1801 and 1818. These records can be of real use
genealogically, but it would seem that one already needs to know that pensions
were awarded and roughly when to make these usable. It should be mentioned that
there are marriage and death certificates also surviving elsewhere in naval
paperwork.
Officers,
especially of flag rank, could be given honours by the State, but information
on these is not to be found in naval records and should be pursued through
biographies and the like. There were also commemorative medals and medallions
struck for specific actions, but as these were private affairs again are not
recorded in State records. Excepting a general service
medal introduced into the Honourable East India Company, the first naval campaign medals introduced were those for the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815).
Occasionally
officers who had been found guilty of serious misconduct were listed as not to
be employed further in ‘black books’. Being compiled by
both Admiralty and Navy Board variously, they give the nature of offence and
date. Arranged by rank and chronologically, they are indexed and for
commissioned officers begin in 1759 stretching all the way through to 1815.
The century of ‘Pax
Britannica’ 1815 to 1914
With
the production of the official Navy
List
in 1814, directly tracing officers’ careers becomes, generally, a routine but
often time consuming matter. As more commissioned branches and ranks were
introduced through the 19th century and beyond, this led to lists
additional to that of the executive branch. (Nevertheless, until post First
World War there are omissions in entries that make this a not entirely accurate
way of logging commissioned officers’ careers. Courses, for instance, are very
often not shown.) In 1861 a list of officers for the recently formed Royal
Naval Reserve
was approved and recorded. Later in the century there would be further
complications, such as supplementary lists (the first in 1895) that were
officers overwhelmingly transferred from the R.N.R. as lieutenants, as a result
of shortfalls due to shipbuilding through the Naval Defence Act of 1889.
Another, for the Royal Indian Marine appeared in 1892. And,
with the formation of the Royal Naval
Volunteer Reserve in 1903 another list was added.
There
are also two further publications that can be very helpful. One is The New Navy List containing the names of all the
Commissioned Officers, in Her Majesty’s Fleet; also the Masters, Medical
Officers, Pursers, Chaplains, Schoolmasters and the Officers on Full Pay of the
Royal Marines &c. &c...’ otherwise thankfully known as the New Navy List. As well as the listings there is interesting
biographical detail on some individuals, arranged by year, but with no apparent
linking to the usual entries. The P.R.O holds copies, on microfilm, between
February 1841 and the same month in 1856. The National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich has some original copies between 1840 and 1857, but these are very
fragile. Similarly, later in the 19th and into the 20th
century there was the Royal Navy List. Some editions of this, from 1879, are at the N.M.M. and
the relevance of these publications is that there are useful abstracts of
officers’ careers.
The
Navy List, while a very useful
tool in tracing officers’ careers from 1814 onwards, cannot answer some
questions, such as what specifically officers were engaged in when appointed to
dockyards and in all likelihood other records will yield some types of
information more quickly. Nevertheless, it may prove a good idea to get the
basics, such as dates of entry and exit, as well seniority in rank(s). But,
before showing how the paper trail changed, the situation immediately post war
in 1815 should be examined slightly further.
It
is perfectly clear from the records that the R.N. had already begun running
down as a consequence of the defeat of France and the First Peace of Paris in
1814. Bonaparte’s reappearance and frantic final one hundred days only delayed
this slightly. In 1815 the R.N. comprised something in the region of 145,000
officers and men. A few short years later this had shrunk to a mere 19,000 all
told. Excepting the small number of individuals able to be retired through
earlier schemes, officers could remain on the list for as long as they wanted
and as the navy could only employ a small percentage of these, selection became
a highly important issue. Without salient information even on the service of
officers, as mentioned earlier various surveys, with the aim of
gaining data relevant to employing only suitable individuals were carried out. While many of these show only wartime service, one survey conducted
in 1846 for captains, commanders and lieutenants may
should post war service.
The
analyses, as already stated,
were often compiled directly from the surveys are a mixed bag of documents,
some giving information on individuals, others being merely abstracts of ranks
and numbers. For commissioned officers there were two periods
when these were carried out - the 1840s and then again in the 1890s. It
should be noted that some of the information of the former may deal with service of officers as far back as
the 1790s..
For
numerous and changing reasons, promotion continued to exercise the minds of the
naval establishment. Notebooks indicating candidates
for promotion
were often kept either by the private offices of the First Lord, or First Sea
Lord and can be seen to reflect these changes in the service in general. As
well as information taken from records of service sometimes there are personal
assessments and comments. Many
of these relate to cadets, including those at the R.N.C. from the end of the
Napoleonic Wars to 1835 and later generations for nominations in short bursts
through the 1840s to 1850s, 1860s to 1870s and then from 1882 through to the
First World War. Similarly mates and midshipmen at sea near the end of the
Napoleonic Wars; mates and sub-lieutenants (before they were commissioned
officers) in 1830; the latter two ranks (then as commissioned officers) in the
1840s to 1850s were noted on. Lieutenants feature only fleetingly, between 1814 to 1816 and for the year 1861. Commanders were
reported on from the 1840s to 1890s; and captains from the 1840s to 1860s.
Pursers, by then commissioned are shown for 1856 and surgeons from 183I onwards
(with two series running for long periods).
By
the latter Victorian era more senior officers were also subject to confidential reports. Kept by the First
Lord’s Private Office as of 1893, these were used in relation to the
suitability of promotion for captains and flag officers. In order of seniority,
these give earlier service histories and continue through their service. These
can be highly illuminating, both
positively and negatively. Additionally there was a separate series for those
attending the War
Course
between 1904 and 1914 although there is little information in these entries.
Although service registers for commissioned
officers did not really come into use generally (again) until the 1840s there
had been some precursors. Interestingly, c.1814 there had been a compilation of
captains, commanders and lieutenants. Executive branch officers’ service was
apparently first properly compiled c.1840-43 and subsequently entered.
Inherited from registers already begun while of warrant rank, engineers’
service was shown on attaining commissioned status in 1847. There was a similar
exercise for surgeons (being commissioned in 1843). Pursers too were reported
on in this way on their rise to commissioned rank in 1843. Chaplains received
commissions for the first time in 1843 as well. Reporting on their service had
already begun in 1812, when they were made ‘pensionable officers’ and this
continued.
With
at least some
of the series of commissioned officers’ service records now online, the old
ways of using card indexes at T.N.A. are becoming redundant. For the moment the
following may
still be of some use. This was that the simplest way of locating officers’
service records is by using the card index in the microfilm reading room at T.NA.
It should be stressed that these documents do not necessarily show individuals’
entire careers. As
departmental records, often they are very narrowly focussed and I have found
this particularly the case with medical officers later in the 19th
century, where sometimes there is nothing more than one single appointment to a
hospital shown. And, some registers are missing, even if they are shown in the index. An example of this is
the first supplementary list. Additionally, there is a collection of 283
service sheets in card form, released quite recently, for careers beginning
approximately 1880, containing some R.N. officers’
details.
Certificates
of service continued, issued by
the Navy Pay section of the Account-General’s Department from 1832 onwards. Of relatively limited
use, post 1815 mates and sub-lieutenants as candidates until 1854 form one
group; some masters and pursers 1847 to 1854 as candidates for commissions
another; and engineers 1870 to 1873 for pensions a third
Again
passing certificates remained in use. For
those attaining the rank of lieutenant, with some changes (and including mates,
acting sub-lieutenants and sub-lieutenants for relevant periods) they continued
on until 1902. Midshipmen’s records cover 1857 to 1899. Surviving masters’ passings (as commissioned officers from 1843) can be found
for 1851 until 1863. As specialisation came to the Executive
Branch qualification for navigating lieutenant is covered for 1869 to 1885 and
gunnery lieutenant from 1869 to 1882. Other branches also required such
certificates. Engineers’ passings are from 1863 until
1902; pursers from 1851 until 1867 and naval instructors (first commissioned in
1861) from 1853 until 1872.
Distinct
from passing certificates, were other records relating to examinations for warrants and commissions. Although
stretching back to the 17th century the first surviving are from the
19th. These include cadets at the Royal Naval College Portsmouth
passing in navigation and mathematics 1816 to 1818; mates and sub-lieutenants
passing for lieutenant 1829 to 1880; and the later R.N.C. Britannia’s final
exams for cadets 1877 until 1902. There is a compilation of gunnery
qualifications for captains, commanders, lieutenants, mates and sub-lieutenants
for 1841-42. Then there are records of the R.N.C. Greenwich, dealing with
captains, commanders, lieutenants and engineers from 1876 onwards; and further
courses there for sub-lieutenants from 1907 onwards. Surgeons at the R.N.
Medical School are figured and relate to 1884 to 1914; and engineer cadets at
the Royal Naval Engineering College Keyham for 1897
to 1907.
Commissions for this era are rather
patchy. Most of those surviving deal with officers abroad
until the 1840s; those of flag officers for 1860 until 1870; and strangely for
sub-lieutenants 1860 to 1880. (Like a lot of other British records, some
naval paperwork was incinerated through German bombing in the Second World War.
Whether these documents were among the lost, I do not know.) Similarly,
documents recording temporary and acting appointments are not particularly
of use, apart from those interested in officers in elements of the Coastguard, or foreign officers
in R.N. service between 1830 and 1858.
Applications
for employment
for lieutenants continue on to 1818. There is then a break of over twenty
years. Thereafter there are notations for all commissioned officers (excluding
engineers who are not mentioned) from 1842 to 1858 and including the warrant
officers raised to commissioned rank (although there are slight differences in
the years the latter are recorded).
Succession
books
continue in their imperfect way through this period. Even with service
registers and the like, full pay ledgers may still be of use. Flag officers’ ledgers end
post war at 1817 and for captains and commanders three years later.
Theoretically, these begin once again at 1830 and continue until 1872 for all
sea officers. Unfortunately, there are a number of shortcomings, including the
indexes not actually matching the surviving ledgers that are obviously far from complete. I have not found any
entries (other than for surgeons) earlier than 1852. For engineers these pay
ledgers span between 1847 and 1873. Half
pay books
for commissioned officers were maintained all through
this period and are either indexed, or in alphabetical order. On the other
hand, leave books apparently disappear as
of the later 1840s, but at least include the warrant officers newly
commissioned in 1843.
Substantial
reorganisation and some simplification of pension provision began in 1836 and
general superannuation for commissioned
officers was developed through the 19th century. As can probably be
expected, some of these pensions were only awarded through application, while
others were gained merely on reaching age and seniority required.
The
work of the Charity for the payment of Pensions to
Widows of Sea Officers also became the Admiralty’s responsibility in
1836. With this the ‘means’ testing ceased and from 1849 widows of officers of
the new engineering branch also became eligible. Also, a later regulation in
1862 meant that married commissioned officers were required to lodge copies of marriage certificates for eligibility of
their wives for widows’ pensions. Only a small percentage of these remain up to
1902 and can be found with a card index in the research enquiries
room, but marriage details are shown in service records (or, at least, some).
In
relation to the above, there are three sets of records relating to widows’
pensions that include officers’ wills.
Collectively
these span from pre 1815 through to 1914. One of these is in alphabetical order, identifying individuals in the other two can be done
via card indexes in the research
enquiries room.
In
time Greenwich Hospital lost its importance as an institution, although the schooling for the orphans and
children of naval personnel continued: with various changes, both in name and
criteria for help. That said, from 1861 onwards no offspring of commissioned
officers were admitted to the hospital schools. (Engineers’
boys were an exception, apparently continuing until 1865.) Also, as of
1883 and operating until at least 1922 Greenwich Hospital awarded grants for the education of
commissioned officers’ children.
In
the main the responsibility for the administration of naval pensions was
assumed by the Admiralty (although not exclusively). Under the new regime
change, with yet another time lag, from 1866 engineers were eligible for wound pensions, as were midshipmen and naval cadets
from 1902.
Also,
the ‘Royal Bounty’ system for those
killed in action, or dying of wounds (although few and far between in the
latter period) continued on to 1832. At the point of writing, my understanding
is that this disappeared subsequently.
Even
with this long period of peace in the home islands, there were still a number
of wars and lesser actions abroad within the era of ‘Pax
Britannica’ and campaign medals were subsequently
issued. These, along with other honours and awards for commissioned officers,
are often mentioned in the Royal Navy
List,
as well as in the relevant medal rolls.
1914 onwards
Again,
the Navy List can be used profitably
to build up a skeleton of officers’ careers. Nevertheless there are potential
pitfalls for the unwary. As well as more space devoted to new arms, such as the
Royal Naval Air Service in 1914, all sorts of temporary lists appeared during
both the World Wars. Those, especially for the Second World War (1939-45) can
be rather unwieldy to handle. It should also be pointed out that there were two
types of the wartime Navy List - published and
confidential. The latter, containing substantially more information can be
found in a few locations, including T.N.A. Also, not generally known, these
were produced monthly, rather than quarterly that is often stated in the
guidebooks. Sometimes monthly editions need to be sought out when vessels were
only in commission for weeks. Also, there are copies of the Royal Navy List until 1916 in the library at the National
Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
By
this time service registers were very much the norm
and those currently released generally relate to service up
to the 1920s. For this period where these are available to general public again
the simplest way of approaching finding these are by using the relevant card
index system in T.N.A.’s microfilm reading area. It should be noted, once
again, that some officers’ service records are missing. An example is for
engineering officers who served until the end of the First World War, who were
then brought out of retirement during the Second World War.
For
those seeking service records for commissioned officers from the 1930s onwards
there can be real problems. There are
two separate holdings - one for those who were discharged, demobilised, killed,
or retired prior to the age of sixty and another, elsewhere, for those over sixty.
Since, in my experience at least, these officials are loath to impart any information to enquirers, this creates a
complication. In essence one has to already know much of the required officers’
service histories before applying to the
correct address, if one does not want to suffer inordinate delays. Even then, there are fees to be paid
and enquirers simply have to wait until searches are made.
Contact
details (as understood through a number of non telephone conversations with
civil servants) are as follows:-
For officers
leaving the service over the age of 60...
The
Directorate of Personnel Support (Navy),
Navy Search,
TNT Archive
Services,
Tetron Point,
William Nadin Way,
Swadlincote,
DERBYSHIRE
DE11 OBB
Tel: 01283
227912/3
E-mail: navysearchpgrc@tnt.co.uk
For officers
leaving the service aged 60 and under...
Naval
Secretary (OMOBS),
Room 169,
Victory
Building,
H.M. Naval
Base,
PORTSMOUTH PO1
3LS,
Hampshire.
There
is one exception to the above, relating to commissioned officers that were loaned to the Royal Indian Navy during the Second World War. These are to be found
within the Indian Office Collection at the British Library, Camden, London.
The
passing of the Freedom of Information Act should
have made applications to see service records a routine matter, whether for ‘next
of kin’, or not. Unfortunately, this has not proven to be the case
and until recently requests have been treated as something of a haphazard
lottery. For any other than simple genealogical requests by proven next of kin
it should also be noted that an additional layer of arguably pointless bureaucracy
has been inserted, in the form of a ‘Data Protection Section’. There is some
irony in this.
As
I understand the situation, recently there have been moves within the Ministry
of Defence to frustrate F.O.I. requests as policy.
It should therefore be noted that this
is in breach of the law as passed by Parliament! I have been told (by a fellow freelance friend of mine)
that there are to be relevant questions to be tabled in the House of Commons
later in 2006.
Of
course, there is a complete contradiction to the
above. There is a collection of all sorts of bits and pieces of officers’
personnel documents (from investigations I have made to MoD apparently from
establishments shutting in recent decades) with details for some running on until 1960.
There
are also other types of records that have been released that can prove useful.
These are of the types already discussed.
The
notebooks indicating candidates for promotion by this time were very
limited in scope, or have not been released. Only those for surgeons until 1926
and naval cadets needing nominations until 1917 are available.
The
results of examinations continue well into the
20th century. There are more for R.N.C. Greenwich relating to
captains, commanders, lieutenants and engineers theoretically until 1957;
further courses again at Greenwich for sub-lieutenants to 1957 and naval
instructors 1920 to 1957. The reality of these is that there is a 75 year rule
applied and the ones I have looked at presently end in 1938. Surgeons at the
R.N. Medical School relate to 1884 to 1914.
There
are few succession books for this period. There
is one for flag officers begun in 1913 basically running through to the
completion of the First World War (1919) and interestingly, includes their
staffs. There is another for surgeons until 1924, including those appointed to
hospitals and finally one for wardmasters in hospitals
from 1921 to 1939.
Although
full pay documents are not available, some half
pay records,
for all commissioned ranks, can be seen until the 1920s. These are either in
alphabetical order, or indexed. Similarly, information on the various
retirement pensions and superannuation for all commissioned
ranks has been released until around 1920. There is also detail of retired pensions and the like for a small numbers
officers of commander’s rank and above until at least 1932, as well as wardmasters until 1924.
Pensions
for wounds continued
to be awarded for all officers and details released (among a number of other
types of pensions) run to 1928. Casualty
records
for all commissioned officers (including dismissals and resignations) are
available until 1933, with deaths other than from enemy action until 1956. Second World War records
of this last mentioned group are available even though
a 75 year rule is said to be applicable to these as well. And, it should also
be noted that there could well be errors and omissions in released casualty
lists, as the R.N. (excluding the Submarine Service) still did not have a
standardised system for recording casualties even in 1982 (the latter being
within the author’s own experience).
Rolls
for campaign medals can be viewed for
conflicts up to and including 1972, although these are of overwhelmingly
limited use except to those conducting academic research. There are also honour sheets for naval officers for the First World War and
these can yield far more information in relation to all sorts of honours and
awards. The actual entries are on microfilm and are indexed via a card index in
the T.N.A.’s microfilm reading area. Sometimes entries can be distinctly
difficult to find, although these can be well
worth
effort. Finding citations for honours and awards
for the Second World War can be far more difficult to pin down and apparently
not all have survived (along with others’ such as those in New Year’s honours
that never did contain these).
The
Coastguard remained an Admiralty
responsibility until 1923, but officers’ personnel records continuing on to
1947 have been released. Being called out in August 1914 they were actively
used throughout the Great War 1914-19. Officers of this service were very often
had been retired from the R.N. or on half-pay.
Go to tracing warrant officers page