Assistant Steward

[OLD ROBIN HOOD]

Greetings good folk.

Whilst on my travels the other day I was offered a War medal to a seaman. I do not have much knowledge

about naval subjects but I was intrigued by the inscription on this one  A.ALLAN. ASSISTANT STEWARD. M.F.A.

As I said I know almost nothing about this subject and have no idea how to find further information about 

Mr ALLAN or for that matter what the M.F.A. is (or was ). 

So once again if anyone can help I would be very much obliged .

Old Robin Hood .

[Matlock1418]

28 minutes ago, OLD ROBIN HOOD said:

what the M.F.A. is (or was

Merchant Fleet Auxiliary I think

Seems probably one for they likes of @horatio2 and @MerchantOldSalt I might suggest

M

[KizmeRD]

He doesn’t appear to have left too much of a footprint, but chances are he was was a young lad who was working on one of the ocean liners that got taken into government service soon after the outbreak of the war. These ships were used as armed merchant cruisers (commissioned Merchant Fleet Auxiliary).

A/Steward A. Allan would have signed a so called T.124 agreement, which was a device used to bring merchant seafarers under direct naval control (becoming subject to naval discipline act). It was in effect a half-way house between the merchant and royal navy. He continued his ordinary role as a steward, but his ship was now fitted with some guns, and was fully engaged on war service.

MB

Edited 28 February by KizmeRD

[seaJane]

I searched TNA's Discovery catalogue using "Assistant Steward" Allan BT (= Board of Trade for the Mercantile Marine) and the only A Allan I can find mention of as an Assistant Steward is Alex Allan, listed here:

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14739776

I can't find an ADM[iralty] record of any RN service for him.

sJ

 

 

[KizmeRD]

Not a bad call, PRINCESS MAUD had been a passenger/cargo ship (Irish ferry?) and was taken into government service in May 1916 - Feb 1918 in order to become a fleet messenger. Sunk 10th June 1918 North-East of Blyth (UB-88?).

MB

Edited 28 February by KizmeRD

[horatio2]

The MMR medal roll offers:-    Ast. Std. Alfred ALLAN, a pair for service in DUKE OF ALBANY [an ABS]  -   and Ast. Std. Arthur ALLAN, a trio for service in HIMALAYA [an AMC].

Edited 29 February by horatio2

[OLD ROBIN HOOD]

Greetings all

Very many thanks for all of the interesting information.   One more thing Horatio ,what does ABS and AMC stand for ?

O.R.H.

[horatio2]

ABS = Armed Boarding Steamer.   DUKE OF ALBANY, armed boarding steamer, mercantile conversion, M.11 (on coming into service). Built 1907, 1997grt. Armament: not listed. In service 30.10.14. Many ABS worked with cruiser squadrons, and carried out examination duties at sea. Sunk 25.8.16 by UB.27 east of Pentland Skerries.

AMC = Armed Merchant Cruiser.  HIMALAYA armed merchant cruiser, mercantile conversion, M.67 (on coming into service), (no pendant. assigned 1.18). Built 1892, 6,929grt, 18.5kts. Armament: 8-4.7in (later 8-6in). In service 17.8.14, purchased by Admiralty 1916. Of over 60 commissioned AMC's employed on patrol and later convoy protection, 33 served with 10th CS on Northern Patrol. 

 

[MerchantOldSalt]

Just as a matter of interest, and between helping my Grandson to build a wooden Fokker DR1, I went through the 115 in number A Allans who held CR Identity Cards in 1918 onwards many of whom served at sea during the war.  This was really as an exercise in showing that your chances of identifying the A Allan on your medal are, unfortunately, remote.  I was quite surprised to find only 6 who were in the Catering Department, and one of those was a Stewardess!  Of course there were many seamen who did not sign up to the Identity Card scheme so there will undoubtedly be others.

The name Allan is quite common which makes it even more difficult, along with the lack of Crew Agreements to have survived, The National Archives and MHA in Canada hold but a few "representative" examples.

MB has given you a good description of what a Merchant Fleet Auxiliary might have been, but there were also many merchant ships chartered/hired by the Admiralty or the War Office, thus becoming Merchant Fleet Auxiliaries, whose crews were neither in the Mercantile Marine Reserve, and therefore on the MMR medal rolls, nor signed T124 Articles to place them under naval discipline. These ships would have been undertaking normal cargo runs for the Government carrying stores, fuel, ammunition etc. from A to B as required and Naval Discipline and its legal ramifications, was not necessary in these cases but the ship and her crew were still regarded as MFAs for the purposes of medals.

There is much documentation at the National Archives concerning the status of Merchant Seamen and the ships on which they sailed.

I'm sorry to say that, in my opinion, it is almost impossible to identify a Merchant Seaman from the information on a medal alone unless he/she has an unusual name. If they had but put the discharge book number, for those who had them, on the medal research would be easier. I have three pairs and trios of medals to Merchant seamen and I have no idea who they are!

Tony

[KizmeRD]

As Tony says, it’s almost impossible to identify the man with any firm degree of certainly, however statistically speaking there were far larger numbers of stewards employed on AMC’s than likely to be found on an Admiralty collier/ammunition ship, or similar.

MB
 

Edited 29 February by KizmeRD