Struggling with Abbreviated Rating on Naval Service Record

[Will O'Brien]

Can any forum users assist in deciphering this naval rating on a record which I've been reviewing. It's certainly not familiar to me. It looks like Off Sid III but struggling to link that to any known naval rating/rank.

 

 

Edited 30 July , 2020 by Will O'Brien

[RNCVR]

Officer's Steward 3rd class.

 

 

Edited 30 July , 2020 by RNCVR
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[Will O'Brien]

1 minute ago, RNCVR said:

Officer's Steward 3rd class.

 

 

 

Many thanks. His career was very short as discharged after only 3 months service.

[RNCVR]

Perhaps medically discharged, should be a reason for discharge noted & likely abbreviated. 

 

Might you post his entire ADM 188, perhaps I or another mate might be able to assist you,

 

Thanks, Bryan

[hmsk212]

Hi 

 

His record shows he was discharged due to dementia

 

Steve

Edited 30 July , 2020 by hmsk212

[RNCVR]

He would have qualified for the British War medal at a minimum, his entitlement would be in ADM 171.

 

Thanks for that info Steve,

 

Best...Bryan

[Pat Atkins]

According to Ancestry - he was awarded the British War & Victory Medals, also a SWB dated 5.1.17. I can't make out his age on the Register (at first I thought it was 76, before I noticed the full stops!):

 

[horatio2]

Age F.E. = details are for date of First Entry

[Will O'Brien]

Indeed, he was discharged due to 'dementia' & was admitted to the Knowle Asylum near Fareham. However, the term 'dementia' I think needs to be viewed in its loosest possible sense. The individual in question was certainly back in normal life by 1918 & marries into my wider family in 1921. He works as a Letterpress Compositor & fathers two children. He finally passes away aged 79. Not bad for someone diagnosed as having dementia at the age of 22.   

Edited 30 July , 2020 by Will O'Brien

[horatio2]

1 hour ago, Pat Atkins said:

he was awarded the British War & Victory Medals,

The medal roll seems to show that he did not claim his two medals until 1942.

Edited 30 July , 2020 by horatio2

[headgardener]

41 minutes ago, Will O'Brien said:

Indeed, he was discharged due to 'dementia' & was admitted to the Knowle Asylum near Fareham. However, the term 'dementia' I think needs to be viewed in its loosest possible sense. The individual in question was certainly back in normal life by 1918 & marries into my wider family in 1921. He works as a Letterpress Compositor & fathers two children. He finally passes away aged 79. Not bad for someone diagnosed as having dementia at the age of 22.   

 

It’s worth bearing in mind that the term ‘dementia’ is now synonymous with progressive degenerative conditions affecting the brain, but in the 19th and early 20th C its use as a diagnosis implied simply ‘a loss of the ability to reason’, which in turn could be the result of a number of conditions ranging from degenerative conditions (as per the modern use of the term) to episodic organic or cognitive disturbances. Consequently, it’s very hard to know exactly what an historical diagnosis of ‘dementia’ actually implied without having access to some record of the physician’s thinking regarding the patient in question. Having come across a number of cases in which a young soldier had been discharged due to ‘senility’ or ‘premature senility’, I suspect that it was a way of discharging the man in such a way as to make it virtually impossible for him to be recalled. In this way, a highly strung or ‘sensitive’ individual who was very poorly suited to the stresses and strains of military life and who suffered what we might now consider to be a breakdown or minor psychotic episode could be labelled as suffering from ‘dementia’ and swiftly discharged back into civilian life where they would no longer be the responsibility of the military..