Britannic War Diary

[Taylan]

Hi there,

I'm currently doing some research for my postgrad studies and have found some very useful hospital ship diaries. However, Britannic's doesn't seem to be among the WO/95/414 collection of diaries. I've tried searching for it under her name but no diary came up. Any ideas as to where I might find it please?

Thanks.  

[dundeesown]

The hospital ship Britannic - The National Archives blog

Not sure if this is any help.

Gary

[Taylan]

Thanks very much but I'm looking for her war diary from when she was in service. I have the one for Aquitania and several others but missing Britannic's and, now I think of it, Mauretania's. The latter two would really help my research. 

[Bernard_Lewis]

Did it go down with the ship?

Bernard 

[sotonmate]

Bernard may be right,the ship had just about 1 year's medical service prior to it's sinking.

[Taylan]

11 hours ago, Bernard_Lewis said:

Did it go down with the ship?

Bernard 

I'm rather ashamed to admit I hadn't considered that! It would make sense, thank you. However, Mauretania didn't sink yet I can't find hers in the collection either. I'll have to do some more digging and see if it's held elsewhere, there are other locations some archives are held. I can check for Britannic's as well in case it did survive.

Taylan

[TEW]

Overall I think the TNA listing of diaries for hospital ships is very small compared to the number of ships operating as such.

Some diaries only have a year or so, usually not the period I'm hoping to see!

I would have thought that diaries for the Brittanic would have been handed over at the end of every voyage.

Not sure of its final port before sinking but it would be unusual for a ship or any unit to retain a year of diary. There were originally three copies of diaries handed over monthly.

I suspect a diary for Nov 15 to its final port did exist.

Quite why diaries for hospital ships are thinner on the ground than any other RAMC unit I can't say.

Wiki tells that she left Southampton and called in at Naples which was her final port.

One would think the diary (or a copy) up to early November would have been left in Southampton.

TEW

 

[sotonmate]

Brittanic seems to have had 2 periods of service,having been released from HMHS duties in Jun 1916 and then been re-requisitioned in Aug 1916 for it's final period of service. Left Southampton on 12 Nov 1916 for Lemnos and sunk on 21 Nov.

It would seem likely that it's Diaires for the first service period from Dec 1915 to Jun 1916 would have been handed in on release from service.

NB. Out of interest my neighbour's father was a Boy Scout acting as a "gofer" on board the ship during it's final voyage.

Edited 1 March , 2023 by sotonmate