1. ","spans":[]}]}},{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceImage","type":"slice-image","primary":{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceImagePrimary","image":{"dimensions":{"width":1200,"height":742},"alt":"Black and white photo of a group of officers on the SS City of Manila, a cargo steamer of the Ellerman City Line","copyright":"Mary Evans/Pharcide","url":"https://images.prismic.io/findmypast-titan/16661bfe-a635-4d82-a616-66a6b14d10d7_group-photo-officers-of-ss-city-of-manila-a-cargo-steamer-of-the-ellerman-city-line-sunk-in-the-atlantic-by-a-german-torpedo-in-1942-with-just-one-crew-member-lost-mary-evans-pharcide.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"caption":"Group photo, officers of SS City of Manila, a cargo steamer of the Ellerman City Line, sunk in the Atlantic by a German torpedo in 1942, with just one crew member lost. Records of Merchant seamen serving in the Royal Navy under T124X and T124T contracts The UK National Archive (formerly the Public Record Office) holds the following records which are available for online access: The reference BT 391 includes the T124X records which detail the sea service of merchant seamen who served on Royal Navy ships. Fireman. Women also sometimes served at sea in the Merchant Navy. World War Two 1939-1945 - Archives New Zealand Skip to main content Our reading rooms are open. Records 1939 - 1946. From the mid-18th century, masters or owners of most British-registered merchant ships were required to keep a record of their crew before the ship left port. Another important archive open to the public is theLloyds Marine Collectionat the Guildhall Library which holds the Captains Registers for the period up to 1948, voyage record cards 1927 to 1975 and runs of theLloyds Registers, Lloyds ListsandMercantile Navy Lists. He survived. Voyages in the registers were usually recorded either as: Home trade voyages (repeated or reported voyages). At 6.25 p.m. Wednesday 26th of May 1943 P.C. In the indexes, names beginning with Mc or Mac are usually found under the letter following that prefix. As the outbreak of World War II edged closer in 1939, the British merchant fleet remained the largest in the world, employing some 200,000 men and women. As the outbreak of World War II edged closer in 1939, the British merchant fleet remained the largest in the world, employing some 200,000 men and women. They subsequently sailed on convoy WS 17. What ship was Admiral Harold Stark on during D-Day? www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/royal-naval-reserve-service-records.htm, First World War Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve records. This was a process which had started with the award of Merchant Navy War Service medals, and the inclusion of the merchant navy in Anzac Day marches in the mid-1970s. However the majority are held by the Maritime History Archive. We are now on Facebook. The first time a foreign team have ever beaten them! Most of the casualties were considered to have been killed by the explosion and subsequent flooding in No. Enter the tag you would like to associate with this record and click 'Add tag'. The ship had to wait in Aden until the Monster liners Mauretania, Ile de France and Nieuw Amsterdam from convoy CM 15 had passed through ahead of her to disembark at Suez before she did. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. Awarded for service between 11 June 1943 and 8 May 1945, in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. The date commemorates the sinking of the first British merchant ship in 1939, just hours after Britain declared war on Germany. please If they appear on the same page, you should only pay one fee. He said he always craved the soil under his boots. The funeral for 46 year old Jim Wafer was held on Tuesday 1st of June 1943 at St Dominic's Roman Catholic Church then burial at Ford Cemetery. It was the Knights of Columbus Hostel on Harvey Road which was frequently used by the servicemen. It was the job of the Ministry to decide what cargo the ships would carry and the function they would fulfil in order to best support the war effort, while crewing and provisioning remained under the jurisdiction of the shipping industry. Conversely, it was fortunate that fair weather allowed the rescue of 80 per cent of the total on board. Medal record of Alfred Harry Badman, BT 395/1. Eight of them are searchable here whilst the ninth, the Arctic Star, was not awarded until 2012 and records of its award do not exist at The National Archives. Maurice "Ginger" Archer SS Wendover. 3 hold. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Coast Guard Nav Bouy Patrols in Pacific 1964 Ship name Grisham. This number made up around one third of the entire global merchant fleet at the time, with many of the seamen coming from all over the Empire, including India, Hong Kong and West Africa. He may have been in the Devon or Dorset Regiment. Records we hold This website Search For information on how to order an Official Military Personnel File for a veteran who separated from service before 1957, . This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. ConsultBT 139for certificates of competency from 1861-1921, BT 142forcertificates of service from 1862-1921 andBT 140for certificates of service of engineers examined in the colonies from 1870-1921 (index in BT 141). ", JEng. Order records to view when you visit. E. A. Huntbatch SS Orama (d.15th July 1941), Fireman James Gilbert Goodwin S.S. San Casto (London). In the top left corner of the record is the ships name. These records come from The National Archives' record series BT112, BT113, BT114, BT115, BT116, BT119 and BT120. Awarded for service between 3 September 1939 and 2 September 1945. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. Numbers were allocated to the certificate of service in BT 130 are as follows: We hold indexes to registers of certificates of competence and service for cooks, 1913-1956 in BT 319. The official history for the Second World War, Australia in the War of 1939-1945, has been digitised and is available for viewing on the Memorial's web site. The world has been led by intensive and extensive waves of darkness from renaissance all the way down to the Covid crisis. Edit Search New Search. If you are ordering more than one record for seamen with similar names, you should check if their records are on the same page. We also found evidence after 1943 of his return to the Army, promotion to Captain and his service in India, near Karachi. Records include photos, honours, service files and death records. These records are digitised cards recording the movements of British and Allied merchant ships during the Second World War. You might also find information about an officer by searching the records of ordinary merchant seamen. The book's structure follows the chronological evolution of geographical opinions and retains a geohistorical narrative. Art . These entries do not simply record a single voyage, but a half year (January to June or July to December) during which the seaman was engaged on a particular ship. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 261046 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible. - Merchant Navy during the Second World War -. Divided first by country and then by shipping company, the book includes the ships of such great Then, as European-built iron-hulled sailing ships replaced wooden square-riggers, Canadian shipbuilders found it harder to compete. On August 26, 1939, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) took control of all shipping. Edit Search New Search. Many years later he wrote a short fictional story about a Maritime Regiment gunner who brought nothing but bad luck. I myself [Captain Elliot] slid into the water shortly before the ship took up a vertical position stern up and then disappeared completely at 05.59. This was 22 minutes after first being torpedoed. The often slow-moving shipsand the civilian merchant mariners who maneuvered themwere easy targets for enemy fire. We do not provide copies of online records please download to view, Visit us in Kew to see original documents or view online records for free, Consider paying for Suffice it to say the remainder of the convoy including Monarch of Bermuda made the passage safely arriving in Freetown on 13th July to fuel and take on water and sailing on 17th July for Durban. Chapter one is called The Idea of the World because it reflects the meaning of the efforts of the ancient's philosophers-geographers to know the shape and size of the Earth, discover its position in space, and find out what is around them. Merchant Navy ships' records: movement cards 1939-1945; Merchant Navy ships' records: registration of merchant ships; Add a tag. The Oil Concessions 15. Even if a person had several mentions, he would only have one emblem. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. Many merchant seamen came from parts of the British Empire, such as India, Hong Kong and west African countries. 3rd Radio Off. Royal Australian Navy History, WWII Merchant ship movement records - Australia; Ron Wylie, Australian merchant navy: stories of the war at sea Background information. Birth, Marriage & Death, including Parish ; Military ; Wills & Probate ; Immigration & Travel ; Schools, Directories & Church Histories ; Public Member Trees ; . The less said about our stay at Drancy the better. Many thousands of POWs died there. Research guidance for records relating to World War 2. They give the seaman's name, age, rank, rating/grade etc with details of the ships on which they served. Catalogue entries for this series have been enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers. For quick pointersTuesday to Saturday ","copyright":"INF13-213 (52)","url":"https://images.prismic.io/findmypast-titan/9794e89f-46cb-4342-8b53-47272a1b0f4b_inf13-213-52-world-war-ii-poster-the-life-line-is-firm-thanks-to-the-merchant-navy.jpg?auto=compress,format"},"caption":"The Life-line Is Firm Thanks To The Merchant Navy Image: INF13-213 (52)"}},{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceText","type":"slice-text","primary":{"__typename":"PrismicArticlePage1939BodySliceTextPrimary","content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Despite sharing the word Navy in their titles, the difference between the Royal and Merchant Navies was that sailors in the latter were classed as civilians. After the declaration of war in September 1939, the Ministry of Shipping then under the control of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Gilmour took control of the merchant fleet. At 8 am on December 7, the Japanese submarine I-26 torpedoed SS Cynthia Olson, manned by mariners and transporting lumber for the Army from Tacoma, Washington to Honolulu.All aboard perished, making these merchant mariners among the earliest American casualties of the war.