Boys Service

[LOCATING]

This arises from my interest in an ancestor, recruited in Ireland around 1891. He served in the Navy for a lifetime, ending CPO. How does an irish lad get into the navy. How does he get to Portsmouth etc? Who looks after him at the start? Such boys became the backbone of the navy that eventually fought WWI

[Tony Lund]

Ireland was part of the UK at that time, and I think the navy will have had a recruiting office at Dublin, they did in 1915 anyway.

From a report of a court case at Holmfirth in 1915:

“The boy’s father said he had caused them no trouble whatever before the war. He had developed a desire to join the Royal Navy, and he hoped that the boy would still be allowed to sit an examination which was due to take place shortly. The boy had tried to join the Royal Navy in May, when he had travelled to Manchester, but he had been rejected at that time because of his small chest size; for reasons not stated the boy was advised to try again in Dublin, but he also failed to enlist there.”

Wherever he enlisted he would have been given a travel warrant to cover the rail and sea travel and very probably some sort of ration allowance, especially for a long journey. Even if something went wrong, like a boy losing his ticket, the police had the power to issue a travel warrant. I don’t think he would have had much trouble getting into the navy from Ireland at that time.

Tony.