Gibraltar / Malta

[jemcareessex]

I have already put a question on this evening regarding my Gt uncle James Rowe, he was severly wounded in the face during WW1 and had a reconstruction. An elderly relative remembers him talking about Gibralter or Malta do do with his war service and as far as I can see there were no land battles in these places, so could he have been in the Navy? I know nothing of the Navy, where do I start please?

Elaine

[Roxy]

Gibraltar and Malta would probably both had military bases prior to, or indeed during, the war. I'm not convinced that I will have helped narrow your search that much, but good luck anyway!

Roxy

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Gibraltar and Malta would probably both had military bases prior to, or indeed during, the war.

Both were definately long tem naval bases, dockyards and more importantly for your enquiry, had hospitals. Malta took casualties from a lot of the war theatres in the Med, such as Gallipoli, Salonika and of course naval casualties. If he was a Royal Navy rating (as opposed to Royal Naval Reserve or Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) his service register page should be online. Click hereADM 188, if you know his date or palce of birth, you can eliminate some of the 47 Rowes who have James as one of their names.

[healdav]

In Gib the hospital became known as the Old Naval Hspital (ONH) and went into care and maintenance as married quarters not long after WW2.

I lived there 1956/57.

The hospital itself was left as it was and furniture moved in. One friend had seven bathrooms and about 10 toilets, another had a corridor so long the children used their bicycles to go to bed.

Yet another had the operating theatre as his living room and we had the mortuary as a storage area!

We were lucky as we actually had a real house (presumably matron or head surgeon or similar) and some people had flats in what had been the nurses' home.

Lovely views over the bay to Spain.