World War 1 Royal Navy Medals

[blue wren]

Hi to all
Does anyone know what medals a Warrant Officer (Schoolmaster class) who served from 1916 to 1919 in the Royal Navy would be entitled to for his service. I have downloaded his service record from TNA but it does not note any medals for service or any particular 'war action' that he took part in. I know the Army had Medal Roll Cards but is there such a record for Naval personnel?
Sabina :)

[Waitabit]

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/navy.asp

Have you checked out here.

[SueNSW]

Sabina - does his record suggest he was land based in the UK during the war - if so I am pretty certain that like soldiers who didn't serve outside Britain during the conflict he would not unfortunately have been entitled to medals.

Cheers
Sue

[crimea1854]

Blue Wren

Perhaps you need to come at this from a different angle. If you have his service record it will include details of all his postings, both on land and at sea. From this it will be possible to establish if the ships he served on were in any major actions e.g. Jutland. This should help in determining his medal entitlement.

Martin

[blue wren]

Thank you Waitabit, Sue and Martin for your replies. My grandfather joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman (school teacher) on 2 March 1916 and discharged on 11 February 1919. The first ship he served on was Vivid 1 which I believe was an in-port training vessel. He was then tranferred to the Defiance on 25 Nov 1916 then back to Vivid 1 on 27 Jan 1917 then his last ship HMS Blonde on 6 May 1917 until discharge. He was promoted to School Master Warrant Officer Class on 6 June 1917.
In a newspaper article published at his retirement, it mentions that he was present on HMS Blonde when the German Fleet surrendered in the North Sea.
I have done a little researching on these ships but they don't mention if they were involved in any major action. Apart from his Naval Officer record which I have downloaded I can't find anything on TNA site about basic medals for Royal Navy Service like the Victory Medal or 1914-1915 /Star for Army personnel. Can someone suggest somewhere else I can look for the Navy medals?
Regards - Sabina:)

[Geoffers]

RN service medals for WW1 are not online, so you'll have difficulty accessing the medal rolls from Australia.

RN medal rolls are in document class ADM171 and from memory WW1 medals commence with ADM171/89.

Using TNA's catalogue you'll see a small field in the top left of the screen with the words 'type reference here - enter ADM171/89 and search, you can then use the 'browse from here' the various pieces from there - but - this is just a catalogue and tells you how the medal rolls are grouped.

PS - I think WW1 ratings medal rolls begin around ADM171/94 or 95 - you can easily reach them by browsing through the pages.

[SueNSW]

Quite a coincidence Sabina - my husband's grandfather was also on HMS Blonde (interesting name for a naval vessel I've always thought!!) He served on her from 15th March 1917 until discharge on 3rd March 1919. He was a lowly Stoker (though he had made Stoker 1 by that stage) - wonder if he took advantage of whatever it was your grandfather taught.

Last year I was in England and able to look at the vessel's logs for this period at the NA - I will pull out my notes and post later - but from memory they spent vitually all the time in and around Scapa Flow and shuttling between there and either Liverpool/Birkenhead or Firth of Fife/Rosyth.

Again from memory they were docked in Rosyth at the time of the Armistice - and I was struck that the only mention of it was a simple statement "Spliced main brace" that evening - loosely translated as "drinks all round"

If your grandfather didn't join until 1916 - the two medals he is likely to have received would have been the British War Medal and the Victory Medal

As I said - I'll pull out my notes and give you a bit more later on

Cheers
Sue

[SueNSW]

Hi Again Sabina

Not sure if you have googled HMS Blonde but if so you have probably found these 2 wikipedia entries -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Blonde_%281910%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Fleet

plus some more info here - http://www.worldwar1.co.uk/light-cruiser/hms-Blonde.html

and some pictures here - http:// www. battleships-cruisers.co.uk/blonde_class.htm (join up the spaces this is a commercial site!)

When both grandfathers joined her she was in Scapa Flow and she was recorded as doing short (and apparently uneventful) patrols through March April,May and June 1917

30th June 1917 - on passage from Scapa Flow to Liverpool where she arrived with a pilot on the morning of 1st July

3rd July 1917 - she moved to Birkenhead - where she stayed until 24th September - where she was refitting (to become a mine layer - per several on line articles - though she was never used for this)

She arrived back in Scapa Flow at 12.46am on 26th September 1917

Most of October was spent on short patrols out of S.F

27th October 1917 - on passage to Rosyth - where she arrived 28th October

3rd November 1917 - searching for mines from Rosyth

4th November 1917 - Rosyth to S.F. - short patrols until

15th November 1917 - S.F. to Rosyth - arrived 19th November

6th December 1917 - target practice

7th December1917 - in the Firth of Forth

8th December 1917 - back in Rosyth

11th December1917 - in the Firth of Forth

12th December1917 - back in Rosyth

14th December 1917 - Rosyth to S.F. - where she remained for the rest of the year

Will come back in a bit for the rest of what I have

Cheers
Sue

[SueNSW]

Just to satisfy my own curiosity - I had a quick look at HMS Defiance - and she appears to have been the Devonport torpedo and mining schoolship throughout the war - and much longer either side too

Some info here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Defiance_%281861%29

Cheers
Sue

[SueNSW]

1918 - I was fast running out of time at the NA - and didn't make detailed notes for much of 1918 - only noted that each month seemed very similar to those I had recorded from 1917

I did record bits and pieces from October and November 1918

1st October 1918 - S.F. to Rosyth
14th October 1918 - standby patrol - torpedo testing
15th October 1918 - special patrol - exercises and commenced zigzag
18th October 1918 - back to Rosyth
21st October 1918 - to Firth of Forth

In November they were in Rosyth
November 11th 1918 - 7pm Spliced main brace
November 20th 1918 - 10.20 pm -Cheered HM the King
November 21st 1918 - Rosyth - Firth of Forth - this was the day the German High Seas Fleet (5 battle-cruisers, 7 cruisers and 49 destroyers) surrendered in the F of F - but no actual mention of it in the log!!
November 26th 1918 - Firth of Forth to Scapa Flow

The final month of logs was February 1919 - they were in Sheerness all month - on the 1st they secured to No 16 Buoy - alongside HMS Boadicea - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boadicea_class_cruiser

All hands were involved in cleaning the ship, painting the mess deck etc and men were starting to be discharged

The final entry was on the 24th February 1919 - "Secured to No 14 Buoy - Kithole Reach" - and that was it!!!

It seemed like a fairly uneventful posting for my husband's GF - though I'm sure the rough seas, cold weather and endless toil of being a stoker made it pretty unpleasant - though I learnt from the log of his first ship - HMS Intrepid (14/3/1915 - 18/1/1916) that his introduction to service life had been up in north Russia - so possibly even more unpleasant.

After he left the Navy he signed on for 3 round trips to Australia in 1920/21/22 - so while the work was no doubt just as strenuous - hopefully he saw better weather and some slightly more exotic locations - before he settled down to a life of work (probably still shovelling coal!!) at the Beckton Gas Works in his home town of Barking in Essex.

Cheers
Sue

[blue wren]

Hi Geoffers
Thank you very much for the TNA ADM 171 information. I have had a look at the catalogue and there is a good chance that his medal information is contained in those files. I will have to put this on my 'must do' list if I ever get the chance to go to Kew (sigh). Thanks once again for your valuable knowledge which you are willing to pass on.
Regards
Sabina:)

[blue wren]

Hi Sue
Wow! What a surprise to know that our 2 sailors were on the same ship at the same time and that we have made a connection even though we both live in Australia. You have certainly managed to collect a huge amount of information about your husband's grandfather's time on HMS Blonde - well done. All these little details help to put the puzzle together and round out our ancestors lives. Thank you for sharing them with me and the other members of the forum.
My grandfather did not join up when WW2 started but was very much involved in the local Civil Defence in the Hyde area of Cheshire. If you would like to see a photo of him in his Civil Defence uniform with his unit group please pm me and we can discuss his details further. If not then thank you for passing on the information - that's what I love about this forum - always so generous!
Regards
Sabina:)