Coast Watchers

[Rob Chester]

Does anybody know where I can find information about Coastwatchers during WWI, I believe that the admiralty ran a network of coast watchers, under the command of a military officer, but I can't find any information about them. Does anybody know if there is a history published or if any records survive. Is it possible to tace the organisational structure, members and the whereabouts of coastwatchers posts?

Rob Chester

[Kate Wills]

Do you mean the outposts manned by the Royal Marine Artillery, such as those that guarded Scapa Flow?

Orkney defences thread

[horatio2]

The Shetland Royal Naval Reserve was specifically formed for coast-watching duties. More than 1,500 men were enlisted for this RNR branch. They can be identified by an 'L' suffix to their official numbers. All their original records of serrvice are held at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

The RMA manned gun emplacements.

[MichaelBully]

Rob, I was wondering if the local authority might organise such activity rather than the admirality? I know that were I live in Hove the Hove Emergency Committe was formed which saw the Local Authority, the military and the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex having an input: ( From 'Hove and the Great War' page 79) http://www.archive.org/stream/hovegreatwarreco00walbiala/hovegreatwarreco00walbiala_djvu.txt

Interesting subject for a thread. Regards, Michael Bully

" The Emergency Committee

EARLY in the war the local authorities of

several counties and towns, particularly those

lying on or near the coast, were officially

warned that the enemy might attempt a landing in

this country, and that in view of such a contingency

certain steps should be taken. Extensive civilian

preparations were accordingly made to secure, in

such an eventuality, a free course for the fighting

forces in the defence of the country and also to

ensure public order and discipline.

The local civilian arrangements for dealing with

such a situation were drawn up by the HOVE

EMERGENCY COMMITTEE acting under a body known

as the Sussex Central Organising Committee, of

which the Lord Lieutenant of the county was

chairman. The Hove committee was composed

as follows : The Mayor (chairman), Alderman E. H.

Leeney, Alderman J. Colman, Alderman J. J. Clark,

Councillor Col. Nourse (military representative),

Sir Walter F. Mieville, the Chief Constable and the

Town Clerk (hon. secretary)."

Does anybody know where I can find information about Coastwatchers during WWI, I believe that the admiralty ran a network of coast watchers, under the command of a military officer, but I can't find any information about them. Does anybody know if there is a history published or if any records survive. Is it possible to tace the organisational structure, members and the whereabouts of coastwatchers posts?

Rob Chester

[Rob Chester]

Micheal, I think the civillian set up in Hove was more the type of thing I had in mind. I have been looking at areas in rural scotland and the men doing the coast watching seem to be volunteer farmers and shepherds. However there does appear to be a reporting system feeding into the military so for example, in Argyll, Lt Col Charles Heaton-Ellis seems to have been in overal charge of the counties coast watchers. Bizarrely, Heaton-Ellis, was in the Bedfordshire Regiment but seems to have been attached to the Admiralty during the First World War (I have yet to look at his service record). Heaton-Ellis seems to have been answerable to a military authority in Edinburgh.

The coast watchers had telegraphic contact from their bases and it seems huts were built for them around the coast and that their duties were to look for enemy activity off the coast. Could these duties have perhaps be overlapped with the already existing Coast Guard? With Coast Guards becoming Coast Watchers in wartime, and what was the relationship between them?

Kate, it might be that these duties were taken on by the military in areas of particular sensitivity such as Scapa Flow where you wouldn't want civillians watching the commings and goings of ships.

Perhaps the Shetland experience suggests something simmilar to the formation of the Pals units at the start of the war with various authorities setting up coast watchers, but these must ultimately have been taken on by the military.

It is remarkable that there seems to be no information about Coast Watchers at all.

[HERITAGE PLUS]

It would appear that the Sea Scouts were involved in Coast Watching something that baden-Powell had thought of prior to the war.

http://www.scouting.milestones.btinternet.co.uk/seascouts.htm

Dave

[MichaelBully]

Hello Rob

I think that it's worth considering that the Highlands and Islands of Scotland came under different regulations : Wasn't the area considered to be prone to the landing of spies and subversives from enemy vessels so a whole different security system was in place ?

Yes look forward to reading more posts as seems quite an overlooked topic.

[Kate Wills]

A pair of Boy / Sea Scouts arrested composer Vaughan Williams in the early days of war. He was writing a lecture on Purcell, with musical examples, which they constued as making diagrams of shipping and the harbour.

[Rob Chester]

Thanks for the Sea Scouts link Dave, interesting that Baden Powell wanted the Sea Scouts to be coast watchers as early as 1911, suggesting that the system was already in place long before the war (what would they have been watching for in 1911?). It is also interesting and seems to confirm my thoughts that he had to ask the Admiralty about it.

Rob

[auchonvillerssomme]

If you search the term on HANSARD you will find a lot of hits.