Merchant Marine information

[Guest Ducie]

My husband's grandmother, served in WWI on hospital ships. She was awarded a Marine medal which is written around the edge:

E.Hood, 2217 Australia. Have searched here in Australia, she was born in Sydney in around 1885/6, but have been unable to find anything about her and why she was given this medal. From family it is known one of the ships she was on, was torpedoed off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. She suffered massive injuries after being hit by a launching lifeboat, with the result she was only about 56 when she passed away.

One of the ships we think she may have served on was: HMAN5 KANOWNA

Can anyone help me please?

Thanks

Ducie

[DirtyDick]

Hello

It seems there was a hospital ship of that name. I typed "Kanowna" and "hospital ship" into Google and it came up with a large number of threads; particularly useful for you - although I did not read them - one Australian site seems to contain a list of individual nurses from Perth.

Hope this helps

Richard

[DirtyDick]

Sorry, missed the info. you wanted regarding the medal.

The Mercantile Marine Medal was awarded by the Board of Trade to merchant navy personnel along with the War Medal (silver medal with orange, black, white and blue ribbon with George V on front) for, I believe, six months' sea service '14-18 with at least one voyage through 'hostile' waters. In case of death or injury I believe time served was sufficient for the award.

If this was her only ship, it would indicate that the hospital ship was classified as a merchant vessel and carried a civilian (i.e. Merchant Navy) crew; if it had been under direct naval command with a RN crew I believe that she would have received the just British War Medal and Victory Medal, as did many nurses serving ashore in a theatre of war. Equally, if the Ship was only taken over by the Navy for a short while and also in a theatre of war, she would have received the Victory Medal, the Merc. Marine Medal and the War Medal.

Quite confusing, really!