Unravelling my dad's WW2 service

[Sandiwin]

I am trying to find out more about my Dad's WW2 service but have very little to go on other than things he said when I was a child! I'm therefore reluctant to pay the price of getting documentation from the MOD when I am not certain which arm of the services he was in.

So, the story I was told as a child is that he served in the Royal Marines as a cook. He said that he only experienced one bit of active service, and that was on board a ship off the coast of France (I can't remember whether he did actually mention Dieppe or whether I'm imagining that in the light of knowing that there was some action around there!!!!). He told me that the 'action' he saw was simply that he had come up on deck having just baked a week's supply of bread and the ship he was on was torpedoed and sank. I believe he said it was an allied torpedo. He, obviously, survived but his crew-mate who he left down in the galley taking the bread out of the oven went down with the ship.

How much of this was true or not I have no idea and can't find out: Dad died when I was 17, and Mum is in early stages dementia and really doesn't remember a great deal. Sadly, it's only fairly recently that I have decided to research this a bit more.

I don't even know if you could be a cook in the Marines! But there is also another apocryphal tale my Dad used to tell (again, could be fictional!). Dad tells me that at one point when he was home he went out to a bar. One of his sisters came into the bar with a serviceman who was trying to get her drunk, but unbeknown to him she was passing all the drinks he was buying her along the bar to my Dad. The end result, as I was told it, was a very frustrated man, a very sober young woman and a sailor on the floor at the end of the bar. So was he in the RN instead? Or would he have worn a sailor's uniform?

If anyone can help I would be really grateful!!

Regards

Sandiwin

[simmo1]

Hi

The marines needed to eat, so he could have been a cook. As for records MOD is the only place you will get them. Nothing online yet unless he died or was awarded a gallantry award or was a pow.

regards

Robert

[SandraL]

Some also lied about their age to be able to go to war. Plus some under aged were also used to be play the bugles.

[christanel]

Hello Sandiwin and welcome to the British-Genealogy forums

As Robert has said without your Dad's service record from the MOD you will not be able to move forward with your quest.
You will need 30pound, your Dad's death certificate and a lot of patience because there will be an extended wait before you receive them. This 'sticky' gives some information and links

Christina

[Ladkyis]

The Royal Marines are Soldiers who go to sea, I am pretty sure that their "arm" of the service is Navy.

Why not go here
https://www.royalmarinesmuseum.co.uk/...nd-collections
and click on make an enquiry. I am sure that someone will be able to help and you never know, if you give them his name they might be able to confirm if he was in the Marines