Royal Naval Division, Dvina 1919

[seaJane]

Please forgive me if I'm reinventing the wheel, but I'd like some guidance as to what is the best thread on the site for information on what the Royal Naval Division was doing on the Dvina in 1919.

I'm particularly interested in any involvement that anyone may have noticed from:-

1. Surg. Cdr. E.L. Atkinson, RN (who I know was on the Dvina in 1919 thanks to a paper which he contributed to the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service, on two species of flies).

2. Tom Crean, RN, who was promoted officer in 1916. I have seen his service record as a rating, but haven't yet managed to follow him into the officers division: while I have no actual record that Tom Crean was on the Dvina, I do have a reference in someone else's papers to an officer there who had been to the Antarctic with both Scott and Shackleton: which I think applies only to Crean.

Many thanks

sJ

[Chris_Baker]

seaJane, have a forum search and Google for "North Russian Expeditionary Force", "Murmansk 1919" and "Archangel 1919". Heaps of material to be found. The Royal Naval Division was not there but there were detachments of Royal Marines and much Royal Naval presence.

[seaJane]

Chris, thank you for providing me with the correct topics. I'll investigate when I have a few spare hours

Much obliged.

sJ

[generalist]

2. Tom Crean, RN, who was promoted officer in 1916. I have seen his service record as a rating, but haven't yet managed to follow him into the officers division: while I have no actual record that Tom Crean was on the Dvina, I do have a reference in someone else's papers to an officer there who had been to the Antarctic with both Scott and Shackleton: which I think applies only to Crean.

Picking up an old thread...

Crean didn't leave the UK during WWI, I think (I'll check this tomorrow) - I believe he stayed in Ireland.

The officer is probably Frank Wild, who was an AB on the Discovery (with Scott and Shackleton) in 1901-4; with Shackleton 1908-9; with Mawson 1911-13; and with Shackleton 1914-16, by which point he was second-in-command. On returning in 1916, he joined the RNVR, learned Russian, and was posted to Archangel.

Andrew.

[seaJane]

I have ro say that the biography of Tom Crean, which I discovered after first posting, assigns him to HMS FOX on the Dvina, unless I misread something. I've gone and lent the book out, so can't check. Hold the line...

Edited to add thanks for the above information - remiss of me not to do it before - sorry

[David_Underdown]

The Wikipedia article on Crean has links to both part of his service record in the references section. The article also places him at Chatham and Queenstown during the war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Crean_(explorer)

[seaJane]

OK, August 1919 Navy List checked:

FOX (Dev.)

Light Cruiser

Captain --- Edward Altham, C.B. --- 1 Apr 19

(Senior Naval Officer, Archangel River Expeditionary Force)

.

.

Boatswain --- Crean, Thomas --- 14 Mar 1919

[michaeldr]

Jane,

The Naval Review has a good long article, including photographs and maps, of the operations in this area, and it has about seven mentions of the Fox (alas none of the two chaps you're interested in) Nevertheless it may be of help.

See pages 85 -155 here http://www.naval-review.co.uk/issues/1921-1.pdf#Page=88&View=Fit

regards

Michael

[seaJane]

Michael,

Thanks!

Considering Atkinson had only just (September 1918) been badly wounded and half-blinded in the HMS GLATTON incident, I'm surprised they let him go - but I suspect he pushed very hard to be included. He seems to have been that sort of person.

According to the same issue of the Navy List, he was on H.C. 7 (late) LORD MORTON as of 10 May 19; by December 1919 he was back at the Naval Hospital, Chatham.

I can't see "H.C." in the Abbreviations list at the front of the volume: can anyone advise as to what it stands for? Maybe Hospital Craft? H.C. 7 and H.C. 8 appear to have only 1 Surgeon Lieutenant Commander and 1 Surgeon Lieutenant as their officers.

sJ

[generalist]

OK, August 1919 Navy List checked:

FOX (Dev.)

Light Cruiser

Captain --- Edward Altham, C.B. --- 1 Apr 19

(Senior Naval Officer, Archangel River Expeditionary Force)

.

.

Boatswain --- Crean, Thomas --- 14 Mar 1919

Interesting! I don't have a copy of the Crean biography; but I've checked the 1985 article on him in Polar Record and it skips straight from "made boatswain" to "retired in 1920". I wonder why it didn't make it in?

As to Lord Morton, this was a paddle-steamer converted into a hospital ship in 1918:

http://website.lineone.net/~tom_lee/lordmortonimg.htm

Andrew.

[seaJane]

Ah - thank you for that on the Lord Morton, Andrew.

Can't account for the omission in Polar Record, though...

[Guest astrathie]

Hello, I know this is a bit of a late reply, but I think the person who served with both Scott and Shackleton and also in Russia is Frank Wild. He went to North Russia as soon as he got back from the Endurance expedition but left there to go on an expedition with Shackleton to Spitsbergen. Wild didn't go back to North Russia after that, so he didn't overlap with Shackleton and the others there. Crean definitely wasn't in North Russia, although there were about 10 Scott and Shackleton men there at one time or another between 1917 and 1919.

Sorry if this is old news, but I'm just writing a book about Scott's men in the First World War and have just reached my Spitsbergen/North Russia chapter!

Best wishes,

Anne Strathie

[seaJane]

Hi Anne,

Thanks for that. I do actually have a Navy List entry for Crean on a Dvina ship - if I recall correctly his posting was cut short due to accidental injury.