WW1 Royal Navy

[bart592]

I have my Grandfathers history from 1899 starting with training ships in portsmouth all clearly marked out, but when it comes to the Royal Fleet Reserve all i have is dates no names of ships. this lasted for 6 years from 1907 to 1913 ?

Any clues

Bart

[Jim Maclean]

Royal Fleet Reserve service was as a civilian. The only obligation being to attend training sessions. My own grandfather retired fron the RN on full pension in 1926. His docs show a further 10 years in the RFR with two training sessions. During his period of RFR service he had a pub in Aldershot.

[DirtyDick]

Men served in the RN under both Continuous Service and Short Service Engagement.

The former was an initial engagement of 12 years, with an option to serve without intermission for a further ten years, thereby completing 22 years' service. This entitled a man to a long service pension and LSGC Medal with gratuity (after 15 years, and if all service was classified as Very Good).

In order to be eligible for this pension, all ex-RN men had to belong to the RFR and remain liable for recall until the age of 50 (unless they joined the RN on or after the age of 28 and were 50 when they retired from it).

The latter entailed either 5 or 7 years' service in the RN, followed respectively by 7 or 5 years' reserve liability with the Royal Fleet Reserve. They could carry on service in the RFR if they so desired (hence the number of RFR LSGC medals around, as recipients of RN LSGCs were not eligible for these). Their RN service numbers were prefixed "SS".