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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Royal Navy Service records


Salford

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Hi - hope you can help me regarding further military details relating to my Grandfather who served in the royal Navy in WW1. I got this information from the National Archive but it doesn’t tell me that much. Although I always thought he was taller but then I was only 7 yrs old when he died! I see from the websites ‘find my past’ and ‘ancestry’ there are lots of papers for those who served in the Army but only limited information for the Navy! One thing I do remember was he had a medal but it wasn’t the King’s or Victory medal it was more like a shield, (sadly lost now by some else in the family). Grateful for any advice on where I might get fuller information regarding my Grandfather service records.

Here’s hoping you can help.

Grandad Cooney1.pdf

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Hi - hope you can help me regarding further military details relating to my Grandfather who served in the royal Navy in WW1. I got this information from the National Archive but it doesn’t tell me that much. Although I always thought he was taller but then I was only 7 yrs old when he died! I see from the websites ‘find my past’ and ‘ancestry’ there are lots of papers for those who served in the Army but only limited information for the Navy! One thing I do remember was he had a medal but it wasn’t the King’s or Victory medal it was more like a shield, (sadly lost now by some else in the family). Grateful for any advice on where I might get fuller information regarding my Grandfather service records.

Here’s hoping you can help.

Afternoon Salford,

Based on what you already have, I don't think you will have much luck in getting any more specific detail, although the National Archives at Kew would still retain the ship's logs of HMS Albion and HMS Glorious if you can make it there.

There are probably others more expert than me, but hopefully I can get you started on the more straightforward stuff.

The service record seems to mention three different postings. As far as I can tell, Vivid I was a shore establishment at Plymouth, while the others (HMS Albion and HMS Glorious) were each quite significant vessels in their time. Hopefully these two links are enough to get you started.

http://en.wikipedia....S_Albion_(1898)

http://en.wikipedia....ki/HMS_Glorious

As your grandfather joined up in 1916 I would assume that he would have been entitled to the Victory and War medals, but again, others more expert in the field of naval decorations may be able to expand on this.

Regards,

S.

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Simon

Many thanks for your reply. Given I work in London I should make the effort and take half a days leave to visit Kew.

Regards

Roy

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Simon

Many thanks for your reply. Given I work in London I should make the effort and take half a days leave to visit Kew.

Regards

Roy

Roy,

No problem, although if you are visiting the National Archives then you might like to narrow down the dates in which you have a particular interest. For HMS Albion there are only seven log books from July 1916 to February 1917, but for HMS Glorious between July 1917 and April 1919 there appear to be eighteen. FYI, these are the numbers:

HMS Albion: ADM 53/33230 thru ADM 53/33236

HMS Glorious: ADM 53/42992 thru ADM 53/43009

If I read it correctly, it looks as if your grandfather had a few blemishes on his service record (a bit like my grandfather), with ten days in the cells at the end of 1916 and another 42 days for absence later on. If someone more expert can decode the entry in the remarks column then that might give you a better idea as to why...

Good luck!

S.

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Quite a poor disciplinary record - 10 days cells, 42 days detention for absence and reduced to 2nd Class for conduct amounts to rather more than "a few blemishes". His final character assessment of "Fair" is nearly as low as it could get (only "Indifferent" being worse). Furthermore, after discharge in 1921 he appears to have fraudulently altered his Service Certificate (SC) (presumably to conceal his poor record) and it was impounded on the authority of the Naval Law (NL) Division of the Admiralty.

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Quite a poor disciplinary record - 10 days cells, 42 days detention for absence and reduced to 2nd Class for conduct amounts to rather more than "a few blemishes"...

Yeah, I was just trying to put a bit of positive spin on it...

My own grandfather's service record (Artillery) was equally dubious at times, with a string of Field Punishments capped off by a FGCM for using threatening language to his superior officer. Curiously enough these days the family finds it quite entertaining, particularly as family lore originally had it that he actually struck the officer! Of course, had he done that then I suspect that the outcome of the court martial would have been a bit different.

The issue of James Cooney fraudulently altering his SC is very interesting, and I wonder what any of my grandfather's prospective post-war employers would have said had they asked to see his record. :whistle:

S.

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Gentlemen

Many thanks for all the additional information regarding my grandfather’s service record from WW1. I wasn’t expecting him to be a hero or an angel, I just remember him as a very kind old man. I am guessing because he didn’t talk about his time in the war he wasn’t proud of everything he did but at least he went and did his bit like so many others.

Thanks again.

Roy

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