Ships log of sailors on board

[The Guardroom]

Hi,

Although this is a WWII related question, was hoping someone on the forum may be able to advise.

Is their any such thing as a ships log held at the NA that would list sailors posted to a specific ship.

Its all concerning my wifes Grandfather who served in the Royal Navy in WWII.

Her Mother (still alive) has been reciting the following service number for years and swears it was her Fathers number. She can run this number off as fast as any veteran and says that she used to have to go down to the local Police Station in Milton, Kent; and say this number to get here home when they kept getting bombed out of house and home. The number is 22490586. She says that William Ernest Berry was a Quarter deck gunner on HMS Barndale and was posted to Scapa Flow during the early years of the war before becoming injured and then spent the last 2 years on the Isle of Sheppey.

I have since contacted the RN records office who have finally got back to me to say that the number is an Army number and they have no record of a William Berry ?

The family have a photo somewhere of William and he is without doubt in Navy uniform (bell bottoms the lot), so not a army gunner or Marine assigned onboard to the Navy.

I then spoke to the Army and they have told me that this number belongs to someone called Sedgewick.

Now my Mother in law is 75 and may have got the number wrong over the years, but why would the Navy not be able to find him from his name and date of birth as supplied to them?

I was told by the Navy that many records were disposed of soon after the war, which again I find hard to understand. William was also getting a pension after the war from Blackpool due to injury on board ship, so his records needed to be somewhere after the war.

One person I spoke to at the Navy Records office said that many of the papers went down with the ships ? How stupid, so no enrollment papers survive back at the Navy depot's....

Can anyone help with what they could recommend as my next line of search or where I could get a roll call of the ship etc. to check.

I have since gone back to the Navy to ask for them to recheck (after all I have paid £30), but as per my original enquiry no reply after 4 months.

Any help is really greatly appreciated.

[Tim]

According to the Veterans Agency:

Prior to 1972 all RN personnel were given their service record when they discharged. For pension purposes the RN retained pay details. Therefore the only information held on RN personnel who served prior to 1972 are their Service details (number, rank, name etc) and a list of dates and ships/shore bases.

Veterans Agency

The NA don't hold any RN records from about 1923 onwards.

Cheers,

Tim

[Tim]

HMS Barndale (Z 92) was one of 71 Bar Class, Boom Defence Vessels built for the Royal Navy. She was built by Lobnitz & Co of Renfrew, Scotland. Launched in 1939 and commissioned in 1940. Displacement was 730 BRT, 174ft long, with a beam of 32ft. Normal crew strength was 32, and she was armed with a single 3-inch gun. Max speed was 12 knots. She survived the war.

HMS Barndale was involved in the Anzio landings in 1944 as part of Peter Force under Rear Admiral Troubridge RN. On 29th January 1944, helped rescue survivors of HMS Spartan after it was sunk by radio-controlled glider bomb.

Cheers,

Tim

[The Guardroom]

Thanks for the info Tim.

[james_harvey]

If he served on Boom defence his service number would have been R/JX#########

My grandfather served on HMS Barmill and HMS Kerriemoore.

I hope this helps

James

[The Guardroom]

Thanks for this James.

Did not know that the Navy would have had numbers refering to different roles. I shall mention this to my mother in law (whose Father we are tracing) and see if it jogs anything.

Rgds,

Alan

[bobbluesboy]

During WW2 some ships especially in merchantman in convoys could have Royal Artillery Gunners attached to fire defensive guns and anti-aircraft guns.I know this is a long shot but could this be the reason.Could this man somehow have been in the Army pre-war and then joined the Navy during the war having previously served his time in the Army or territorials?If you look at WW2 medal groups you occassionaly see a WW2 gunners group with an Atlantic Star which usually indicates service on ships of some type.Regards Bob.

[The Guardroom]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply. Did check the service number my Mother in Law continues to rattle off her tongue as if it was her phone number. Rang the Army office and they managed to look the number up and confirmed that it belonged to a man called Sedgewick. No history of hiim being in the Army before hand and would have thought that the Army office would have shown this.

I have since been in touch with the pensions office and will see what they come back with, as he recieved a pension for injury during the war.