Hello folks,

I'm trying to establish whether or not my mother's uncle served in the RN during WW1. It's a bit of a struggle.

We have a photo of Douglas James Blay EYNON in a nice white sailor suit with "HMS Pembroke" on the hat ribbon, on the back of which he sends greetings from Egypt. A bit of googling around suggests that HMS Pembroke was a RN shore training establishment, (or could there have been another ship of that name?)

We have the testimony of my mother. She says that "Jim" went the Dardanelles during the war. She thought the ship might have been the Mariposa. She also tells the story that he missed his ship somewhere or other, and was given the choice of being shot, or serving out the war in a mine sweeper. He was on a ship which was torpedoed. She has also mentioned the ship Mopsa (when she said Mariposa tonight, she may have been thinking of the Mopsa which she has told me in the past). The Mopsa turns out to be a cargo ship which struck a mine and was beached in 1916.

I'm struggling to make anything out of all that. He does not appear in TNA indexes for naval service, nor in the medals index.

Back in Melbourne he was listed in the 1914 Electoral Roll, and he also appeared in the 1919 Electoral Roll, which means if he was in the navy or any naval service, he wasn't in it for long. Can he have joined the RN in Melbourne? I don't know anything at all about the RN.

He does not appear in RAN records. If it wasn't for the HMS Pembroke uniform photo, I'd hazard a guess he was in the Merchant Navy.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what it might mean?

Best wishes,

Lenore