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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

R.N. Chaplains Service Records


Malcolm12hl

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Does anyone know whether service records exist for Royal Navy Chaplains for the 1914-1919 period, and if so where they might be found.  If there is anything at the National Archives, it would not appear to be digitised, and I have yet to find any NA guidance on the subject.  On a similar theme, does anyone know what other sources might help shed light on these men, outside those of a strictly naval nature?

 

At the moment, I am specifically interested in the Chaplains serving aboard ABOUKIR, CRESSY and HOGUE when these cruisers were sunk by U 9 on 22 September 1914.

Acting Chaplain the Rev. EDWARD GLEADALL UPHILL ROBSON (ABOUKIR)

Chaplain the Rev. GEORGE H. COLLIER (CRESSY)
Chaplain the Rev WILFRID F. P. ELLIS (HOGUE)

Robson of the ABOUKIR was lost, while the other two men survived.

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Some chaplains have TNA records - they seem to be in ADM 196 or ADM 339, which can be searched with "chaplain" as a keyword - but I agree that those three reverend gentlemen seem not to be findable. You may have to pick their service details out of the navy lists (many are online at archive,org, search under "Navy list" + [year]) or obituaries in the Church TImes / Tablet if you have a friend with access to the archives.

 

sJ

PS I believe that the Army Chaplaincy museum at Amport House may have some material on naval chaplains too, and will certainly not reject outright naval enquiries. I also have a researching contact whom I will ask, in case he has any information.

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1 hour ago, seaJane said:

Some chaplains have TNA records - they seem to be in ADM 196 or ADM 339, which can be searched with "chaplain" as a keyword - but I agree that those three reverend gentlemen seem not to be findable. You may have to pick their service details out of the navy lists (many are online at archive,org, search under "Navy list" + [year]) or obituaries in the Church TImes / Tablet if you have a friend with access to the archives.

 

sJ

PS I believe that the Army Chaplaincy museum at Amport House may have some material on naval chaplains too, and will certainly not reject outright naval enquiries. I also have a researching contact whom I will ask, in case he has any information.

I ploughed through my copy Pappalardo; Tracing Your Naval Ancestors (outdated, yes - but written in the days of consulting files at Kew (and before Kew)). There is no mention of post 1914 chaplain's records - although it might imply that they may be in the officer's records which would put them in ADM 196. Pre -1914 records are in ADM 6/ 440-444.(up to 1913). Also did a search using TNA's Discovery. I didn't go through all the returns but dipped into samples at random and also came up with some chaplains' records. I wonder if there are more which are not individually catalogued?

RM

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Thank you all for your input, which helps me along the road a great deal.  I now have sufficient background material to build up reasonable profiles of the ABOUKIR/CRESSY/HOGUE trio.  I too consulted Pappalardo, but found that (as is often the case) he is stronger on the 19th century than the 20th.  I believe he is still the naval/maritime specialist at the National Archives, so I will try to track him down on a future visit.

 

Thank you again Michael, Jane, Alf and RM.

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