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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

HMS Thunderer crew member


lucycutler

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Thought I'd share this with Forum members.  I found it a few years ago on a well known auction website, and as my Grandfather was also on HMS Thunderer I couldn't resist it.   Made from a square piece of painted canvas mounted on a wooden frame, it's obviously a 'home made' object and it's been hanging proudly on my wall ever since.  Sadly, no idea who the man was though.  :(

 

1233508840_HMSThundererveteran.jpg.a3c6f7b21823278d019d06167a15c0b9.jpg

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Beautiful Lucy!  Love the embroidery, wonder if the sailor in the photo did it himself, some of them were quite good adept at hand stitching.

 

Best....Bryan

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1 hour ago, RNCVR said:

Beautiful Lucy!  Love the embroidery, wonder if the sailor in the photo did it himself, some of them were quite good adept at hand stitching.

 

Best....Bryan

Hello Bryan, Yes, I'd bet that it was done by the man himself.  The 'embroidery' is in quite a thick thread, and I can quite imagine the man scrounging the canvas, paint and bits of wood etc to make it in his off watch time perhaps.  It has a very simple 'naive' charm about it.  Part of me wonders if his name might be on the back of the photo but I don't want to risk damaging it to find out! 

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Its really a nice piece of embroidery Lucy, expect it was quite bright over 100 yrs ago.   Some of those RN ratings were quite talented & expect he worked at it for quite sometime when he had the time from his normal shipboard duties. Unfortunate no name, but agree with you not to take it apart.

 

Always liked medals to HMS Thunderer, In my over 50 yrs collecting medals I have only had one group to Thunderer buts its a really good one - Chief Gunners Mate & Gunnery Instructor Richard March.  He won the Naval Good Shooting medal twice, quite an achievement, especially on the largest calibre gun of the time on both occasions.

 

HMS Queen, a Formidable class pre Dreadnought Battleship of 1902 - 12" gun. Yr won - 1911

 

& HMS Thunderer, an Orion class Dreadnought of 1911 - on the 13.5 inch gun. Yr won -1913.

 

I will attach a couple photos --

 

If I have taken over yr super topic pls accept my apologies Lucy!

 

Best....Bryan

 

PS Edit - If the rating in your embroidery canvas was a Seaman Gunner he would likely have known CPO March very well.

March grp.jpg

 

CPO March on right, approx 1913-14, wearing both his Naval Good Shooting & RN Long Service medals. 

The CPO seated with him unknown.  At the time photo taken March was Chief Gunners Mate on Thunderer, perhaps one of the other Ch GM's on her, there likely was at least 3 of them on a Dreadnought her size.

March photo 1.JPG

Edited by RNCVR
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17 hours ago, RNCVR said:

Its really a nice piece of embroidery Lucy, expect it was quite bright over 100 yrs ago.   Some of those RN ratings were quite talented & expect he worked at it for quite sometime when he had the time from his normal shipboard duties. Unfortunate no name, but agree with you not to take it apart.

 

Always liked medals to HMS Thunderer, In my over 50 yrs collecting medals I have only had one group to Thunderer buts its a really good one - Chief Gunners Mate & Gunnery Instructor Richard March.  He won the Naval Good Shooting medal twice, quite an achievement, especially on the largest calibre gun of the time on both occasions.

 

HMS Queen, a Formidable class pre Dreadnought Battleship of 1902 - 12" gun. Yr won - 1911

 

& HMS Thunderer, an Orion class Dreadnought of 1911 - on the 13.5 inch gun. Yr won -1913.

 

I will attach a couple photos --

 

If I have taken over yr super topic pls accept my apologies Lucy!

 

Best....Bryan

 

PS Edit - If the rating in your embroidery canvas was a Seaman Gunner he would likely have known CPO March very well.

 

 

 

That's a lovely medal group you have there Bryan, and with a photo too!  I expect my Grandfather would have known him as well.  As well as his medals, I do have his original service record that you might like to see.

 

Arthur Thomas Harding record.pdf

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Yes I agree Lucy, Arthur Harding would have known CPO March as well. The Gunnery dept would have worked close together on the various guns the crews were assigned to & would have had many exercises together during the time Thunderer was part of the Grand Fleet.

 

Thanks for posting Arthur's various parchments, your are very lucky that you have these original documents in your possession. 

 

I note Arthur was issued with a Hurt Certificate during his career(11 Apl 1912). I have one of these original documents as well altho much earlier than 1WW.  I think they were fairly common to Gunnery ratings who received gunnery related injuries during training or whilst on board ships during gunnery exercises.   It is the only example I have ever seen as I doubt many would survive the passage of time. I will attach a couple shots of the Certificate.

Note the Signature of Captain of HMS Excellent.

 

Best wishes...

Bryan

Arnold Hurt Cert.JPG

 

 

 

Arnold Hurt Certif 1883.JPG

Edited by RNCVR
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Wow, Jacky Fisher!

I have Grandad's wound certificate as well, I love the bit about him being sober at the time.  I also have these gunnery records and the envelope that all the documents were sent to him in as well.

 

Arthur Thomas Harding wound certificate.pdf

 

A T Harding gunnery record # 1.pdf

 

A T Harding gunnery record # 2.pdf

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Thats really nice Lucy, you are really fortunate in having all of these original documents &parchments, very very seldom do they survive the passage of time.  I have similar also to an RN CPO (his Hurt Certificate above),  plus a few original letters of recommendation written by his Officer just prior to him going to pension after the 1900 China campaign.  Also with the original envelope as well.  I could send some photos to you via PM, or start up a new topic, as I dont wish to clog up your topic!

He was never on Thunderer as it was well before his time, he was too old for sea service by the time 1WW rolled around, just serving as a Seamanship Instructor at the RN College Dartmouth.  But when his medal group & associated documents came up for auction I could not resist it, as so seldom do original docs & photos of recipient  come with the man's medal group.

 

Best....Bryan

 

P\S -- Yes, I also love the sober part!  Drinking was a real problem in the RN in that time.   I think Arthur was a very lucky man with that calibre of bullet not causing any significant or debilitating wound.

Did he go by Arthur or Thomas ?

 

PP\S -- I also have the medal group of an Army Bandmaster who put a .45 cal slug thru his lung in India & survived, barely!  No Hurt Cert but quite a bit concerning his injury on his Army Record.

 

 

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Glad you liked them Bryan.  As a child Mum occasionaly gave me her Dad's medals (and his Princess Mary 'tin' that he kept them in) to play with.  Very fortunately, the envelope with the records in didn't appear until I was quite a bit older thank heavens, which accounts for their survival intact!

From all the postcards that he sent back to his (then fiancée) he just called himself Arthur.  I never new him sadly, as he died during WW2 from natural causes.  I would have loved to have heard about his experiences.  Florence (his wife/my Granny) died when I was only 18 months old, so no memories from her either. 

Perhaps we should start a topic on Great War memorabilia and the like

 

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How many times have I heard that story? "medals (or badges) given to the children to play with"!

Very lucky that the children were not given the parchments to colour!

Its certainly great now you have them all together again & will try to keep them together for forseeable future.

 

Great War Memorablia topic sounds good Lucy, is there nothing on forum now in that vein?

Know there are several badges\insignia topics under various headings.

 

Best...Bryan

 

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