RN Mobile Brigade?

[stephen p nunn]

Hi all - I wonder if you can help me with an RN issue. Like most of you, I am sure, I am taking this opportunity to go through some of my collection of GW papers. I have 4 letters addressed to a Miss Joyce M. Moore (firstly in London, then Epping) from an RN man (whose signature is unclear). The interesting thing about the letters is that the man belonged to "RN Mobile Brigade" and was stationed not far from me (here in Maldon) at "Highlands Farm, Mayland" (Essex). The letters are postmarked 19/2/17, 17/3/17, 5/4/17 and 11/4/17. He talks about shooting on the marshes, collecting fish and oysters, sawing wood, playing football against the Essex Regiment, signalling, buying milk, walking into Maldon and being on guard. However, it is not clear what the Brigade was doing in Mayland (or who he was). Any RN experts out there that might throw some light on this please?

Many thanks.

Stephen (Maldon).

[horatio2]

I expect this refers to the deployment of the RN Mobile Anti-Aircraft Brigade.

See  https://archive.org/details/defenceoflondon100rawluoft/page/136/mode/2up

Chapter X of this book refers to the Brigade's deployment to the mouth of the Thames (around Foulness, Burnham, Stansgate Abbey) in early 1917. It refers to a gun position on the south bank of the Blackwater River.

A transcription of the man's name might identify a rating in the RNVR AA Corps. There were about ten MOOREs.

Edited 5 April , 2020 by horatio2

[stephen p nunn]

Thank you horatio2 - that's great. It looks like the man's name might be Monro.

Regards.

Stephen (Maldon).

[horatio2]

10 minutes ago, stephen p nunn said:

the man's name might be Monro.

No MONRO but there was an Able Seaman Henry Noel MUNRO, AA.1404, RNVR who served in the Mobile Brigade. His record is on this link:-

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D7707752. 

[stephen p nunn]

I think this is him. Joyce M.P.T. Woore (1896-1986) married a Henry N. Munro (1893-1946) in Epping in July 1919.

Regards.

S.

[horatio2]

Nice match. Well found!

[stephen p nunn]

Thanks all for your help with this research. Here is the story which I would like to send to our local newspaper. Does anyone have a photo of an RN Mobile Brigade that I could use to go with it (with a suitable acknowledgement of course)?

Amongst my collection of Great War ephemera, I have some correspondence between a naval man and his fiancé. Although he refers to her letters (and how grateful he was to receive them) only his have survived the passage of time – presumably treasured by the recipient for many years afterwards. We know that her name was Miss Joyce Woore and her address is initially given as Clapham Common, in London, and later as Epping. But it is the man’s temporary residence that is the most intriguing as far as our local history is concerned. In the top right hand corner of the first yellowed page of each letter it is given as; “R.N. Mobile Brigade, Highlands Farm, Mayland” and concludes; “Yours Noel”. So with a bit of detective work are we able to unlock the story behind all of this – who was “Noel” and what was a Brigade of the Royal Navy (as in R.N.) doing in Mayland all those years ago? I certainly hadn’t previously come across any reference to them being here. All of the letters were franked by the Post Office between February and April 1917. Although they aren’t officially censored as such, the detail is quite scant and the content very generalised. Noel talks about “shooting on the marshes” and being “tiered and covered in mud from head to foot”. However, happier references are made to him catching fish and collecting oysters for tea, of sawing wood for the fire and playing football against a team from the Essex Regiment. On another occasion he spent the day “out signalling” and then “bought some milk from the farm people”. A request for leave was refused, but he did have enough free time to “walk into Maldon” (no mean feat at over 8 miles each way by road, via the villages of Latchingdon and Mundon). In his last communication to Joyce he was “in the mud again” and “on guard duty all day”.

Highlands, or ‘Hellondys’, Mayland, first appears in the written record in 1504. The current Highlands farmhouse, on Highlands Hill, is an early-18^th century timber-framed building that is now quite rightly Grade II Listed. On the eve of the First War the Spurgeon family lived there and farmed the surrounding lands. The population of the village at that time was just over 350. All in all, it was a remote, sleepy place that most people passed through on their way somewhere else. It was a most unlikely location for the military, but elsewhere a terror from the air was being experienced – German Naval Zeppelin L6 dropped bombs on nearby Tillingham, Burnham, Maldon and Heybridge in the April of 1915. However, another enemy airship, L33, was successfully brought down by anti-aircraft fire, on the opposite side of the river at Little Wigborough during the night of 23^rd/24^th September 1916. Doubtless buoyed up by that success, in early 1917 the Royal Naval Anti-Aircraft Brigade was relocated from the Norfolk coast to the Essex marshes. They established their headquarters at Burnham (with officers billeted at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club) and guns were deployed along the north bank of the River Crouch and south bank of the Blackwater – including at Stansgate and, as we now know, at Mayland.

With at least that part of the mystery solved, we turn to “Noel” himself. According to the registers, Poplar born, Joyce Mary Pauline Tennant Woore, married a Noel Munro at Epping on the 25^th September 1919. Born in 1893, that same Noel Munro served as an Able Seaman (service number AA1404) with the RNVR Mobile Anti-Aircraft Corps. So there we have it, a 24 year old naval rating, stationed in the Maldon area in 1917, trying to make the best of things and keeping in touch with his girlfriend through a regular exchange of letters. When it was all over, following their marriage they had a daughter, Daphne Rosemary, born in Epping in 1920. The family then moved to Norfolk, but Noel continued in the navy. He died in service on 14^th October 1946. Joyce outlived him by a further 40 years, eventually passing away in 1986. Daphne then died in 1996. I can’t remember how I came by those letters, but I am so pleased that I have them. They are a remarkable survival and collectively form a remembrance, not just to a local Great War posting, but also of a very human, family story of love, marriage, birth and death – all revealed through pencil on paper, preserved and passed down that we might not forget them.

[horatio2]

IWM has some images -  https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205183770

 

"RNVR Mobile Anti-Aircraft Corps". For accuracy: the Anti-Aircraft Corps (AAC) RNVR was the overall organisation, of which the Mobile Anti-Aircraft Brigade was a sub-unit. Most of the AAC guns were in fixed installations.

For completeness: MUNRO served as Henry Noel MUNRO.  "... Noel continued in the navy." He was discharged from the RNVR on 28 June 1917, claiming a British War Medal from the Admiralty after the war. It might be worth adding that his WW2 service and death was as a Lieutenant RNVR (Special Branch), Link - https://www.unithistories.com/officers/RNVR_officersM3.html.  It is also interesting that his WW2 appointment to HMS ST MATHEW took him back to Burnham-on-Crouch in the area of his WW1 service.

[stephen p nunn]

Thank you for the additional info horation2. I will certainly amend the text accordingly. I don't suppose you have a copy of that picture of him that I could use do you?

Best regards.

S.

[stephen p nunn]

Part of Mayland in 1914.

[horatio2]

I do not have the image but I see that there is an email contact at the top of the RNVR link. The host may be able to help.

 

One further observation - "...guns were deployed along the north bank of the River Crouch and south bank of the Blackwater – including at Stansgate and, as we now know, at Mayland." This may not be true. It is possible that Mayland Farm merely provided billets for the crews of guns based elsewhere in the neighbourhood.

[stephen p nunn]

Ah - OK. Although he talks about guns on the marsh and gives the impression that was at Mayland?

Regards.

S.

[stephen p nunn]

I don't suppose anyone has a picture of the mobile unit/gun that I could use in a newspaper feature (with an acknowledgement of course)?

Thank you.

S.

[horatio2]

There are several illustrations in the book on the link at my Post #2. I do not know if they are useable.

[stephen p nunn]

Hi horatio - yes, I saw those. Just concerned about the copyright issue?

Regards.

S.

[horatio2]

Some also at IWM with use advice. I cannot advise.  

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205183770

[stephen p nunn]

Thanks horatio.

Regards.

S.