HMS Vivid WW1

[Brian Mapplethorpe]

There seem to be various ideas about the nature of HMS Vivid in WW1.  Shore-based accounts?   A relative, Thomas Williamson of Grimsby, enrolled in the RNR in November 1914 and was discharged in 1919.  The fact that he was mentioned in BT-377-7-48612.pdfBT-377-7-48612.pdfBT-377-7-48612.pdfBT-377-7-48612.dispatches doesn't seem to suggest that he worked in an office, but I should appreciate any ideas, please.

[KizmeRD]

HMS Vivid was the naval barracks in Devonport, it was named after the tender attached the Plymouth Command which flew the flag of Flag Officer Plymouth. 

Vivid I, II and III (etc) is what you see on the man’s ADM records (downloadable from TNA) and these are the various accounting bases (pay offices) for Plymouth ratings.

Every (permanent RN) rating in the navy was assigned to a home port, regardless of what ship or other shore base they were attached to. This was one of three possibilities, Plymouth (Vivid), Portsmouth (Victory), or Chatham (Pembroke). 

MB

Edited 8 February , 2023 by KizmeRD

[KizmeRD]

Looking at his service sheet, I see little evidence of him being based in Grimsby during the war, although he was a Grimsby fisherman.

horatio2 will I’m sure soon assist us with some expert clarification of his service history, but from what I see, he was a deck hand enlisted into the RNR (Trawler Section) and first served aboard the hired trawler SOPHRON based at Lowestoft (Halcyon), then on the trawler VALE OF CLYDE based at Rosyth (Columbine) and afterwards at Granton (Gunner), finally being based at Plymouth from where he was demobbed in Jan 1919 (HMS Vivid at Devonport). His naval prize money was however paid to him locally (after his discharge) from Grimsby. He also appears to have been mentioned in dispatches for his part in a U-boat engagement (June 1917).

MB

Edited 8 February , 2023 by KizmeRD

[horatio2]

Despite the dreadful TNA scan of his record @KizmeRD     has pretty much nailed his service. Enrolled in the RNR on 18 November 1914, he was first drafted to HMS SOPHRON, a Grimsby trawler that was taken up by the Admiralty for fitting out for minesweeping at Lowestoft (HMS HALCYON) on 24 November 1914. SOPHRON was moved to a new base at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth (HMS COLUMBINE) five weeks later on 8 January 1915, staying there until 1 June 1916 when she was transferred down the Firth to the base at Granton (HMS GUNNER).

However, a month before this move Williamson had left SOPHRON on draft to the Granton base (apparently for duties ashore) from 1 May 1916. On the face of it he spent well over two years ashore in HMS GUNNER. His next recorded trawler sea draft was on 6 September 1918 to HMS VALE OF CLYDE. This Aberdeen minesweeping trawler was also based at Granton when he joined and she remained there for the rest of the war. (An aside – SOPHRON was mined and lost, with loss of eight of the fourteen crew, off the mouth of the River Tay on 22 August 1917. It was his luck to have been drafted away from her.)

On 8 September 1918 he was drafted away from HMS VALE OF CLYDE and the Granton base, apparently after only two days. However, the recording of his GUNNER/VALE OF CLYDE service is not exactly crystal-clear and I would not be surprised if his lomg time at Granton did not include more sea time, perhaps as trawler spare crew. His Mention for Services in Action with Enemy Submarines in June 1917 would seem to support this.

His final five months of service until demob was, as noted, spent in the RN Barracks, Devonport (on the books of HMS VIVID).

 

 

Edited 8 February , 2023 by horatio2