2nd Brigade RND Staff Officers

[NR72]

Hi All 

 

I am researching the men in this photograph taken before 9th May 1915. My immediate interest is in the chap stood next to Commodore Backhouse (Far Right)  

 

I have tried to get the original photo from IWM but have been unsuccessful. I wanted to enlarge the photo to see if i could make out more of the Cuff rank of this officer. He could be a  LT CDR but not certain. The only LT CDR  on the staff at this point was 

 

Carpenter LT CDR  Solomon J Lacey RN 

 

i know he went home before July 1915 and appears to have a post at Blandford Camp as Barrack Master. He went on to become a Major in the RFC/RAF 

The chap in the photo looks older and fits the age for Lacey who would have been in his early 60s.

 

I cannot find any photo of this man to rule in him or out , if anyone has a photo i would love to see it.

 

If anyone has any information or opinion on this particular mystery man please feel free to add a comment. 

 

Thank you 

 

 

 

[horatio2]

Quartermaster/Stores Officer on the Satff of 1st Bde (Henderson) at Antwerp but avoided internment. Moved across - presumably in the same role - to 2nd Bde (Backhouse) before deploying to the MEF.

You have probably noticed that his various records (RN/RNAS/RAF) give his year of birth as 1857 or 1859, so he would have been 57 or 55 in May1915. It is a pity his RND Record Card does not list his movements with the RND but he appears to have been Barrack Master at Blandford from, at latest, 18 Jun 1915 until his transfer to the RNAS on 28 Feb 1916. Allowing for passage home, he must have left Gallipoli by early Jun 1915 after a little over one month on the peninsula with 2nd Bde.

As the only 2nd Bde Staff Lt Cdr he must be a possibility (and the image does show an older officer) but it could also be a Lt Cdr from one of the three battalions of 2nd Bde (or a visitor from any other RND unit). He appears to be wearing medal ribbons and LACEY appears to have earned S Africa campaign medals pre-WW1.  https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1093/?name=solomon+james_lacey

[NR72]

Yes my thoughts entirely, I think it maybe him , I am unsure of the role of Carpenter Lt Cdr was it an Naval expression for Engineer officer?

Really could do with a photo of him 

 

Yes my next step was to go through all the Lt Cdrs in 2nd Brigade Battalions...

[horatio2]

2 minutes ago, NR72 said:

I am unsure of the role of Carpenter Lt Cdr was it an Naval expression for Engineer officer?

Did what it said on the tin! Later became Shipwrights but basically worked on ther wooden bits of ships (and aircraft in the RNAS).

[NR72]

Ahh ok thank you 

[michaeldr]

Good morning NR72,

Did you ever get to the bottom of this and confirm that Carpenter LT CDR  Solomon J Lacey RN is the man in question here?

best regards, Michael

 

 

[NR72]

Good afternoon

I contacted his relative who could not confirm or deny it was him in the photo. They did show me a photo of him ten years before the photo was taken at Gallipoli and I believe it is him 

BR

Nathan 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[michaeldr]

Nathan,

thanks for the up-date on this

best regards, Michael