Mentioned in Dispatches

[Mags is Awsome]

I hade a relative Arthur Henry Slawson who served on HMS Coventry for her last three years in service, 1939-42. The family have always talked about him as being mentioned in dispatches. It would be interesting to know what the citation was. I have his service no, but don’t know how to go about finding more information.

[Pam Downes]

Hello Mags,

Welcome to British-Genealogy.

Finding citations is usually a case of searching for a needle in a haystack. Often your best chance of success is searching the local newspapers for an article. Until noon tomorrow (Monday) it's free to search the newspapers on Findmypast (dot co dot uk) though obviously not every local paper is yet in the database. And some have intermittent years (e.g. 1936-1941, 1943, 1946-1949)

Arthur's service records might have a reference to it. The service records are still held by the Ministry of Defence. If he died more than twenty-five years ago then anyone who can supply his date of birth and/or a service number, a copy of his death certificate, and a cheque for thirty quid can apply for his full records. If death is less than twenty-five years ago, then either next of kin have to give you written permission or else they have to apply.
All the details can be found here
https://www.british-genealogy.com/th...757#post585757

Pam

[Peter Goodey]

If he was mentioned in dispatches, there should be an entry in the London Gazette. Luckily, you have his service number.

If you don't find anything in the London Gazette, I would start to get suspicious.

For original documents, you could try National Archives series ADM 1 (accessed by using the indexes and registers in series ADM 12) and ADM 116

[simmo1]

Hi

Also note the London Gazette will just have his details, they will not tell you when and why.
What Pam said may be the only way to find out unless the family has the original citation.

regards

Robert

[Peter Goodey]

The London Gazette actually does have some citations - not many but some.

The National Archives files I mentioned contain surviving recommendations. Recommendations contain more information than citations.