Straits Trilogy : tracing relatives

The Royal Navy in the Mediterranean 1900-1915

Tracing Relatives

The "Straits" Trilogy by Geoffrey Miller

TRACING RELATIVES

Unfortunately, I am unable to assist in tracing relatives who may have served in the Navy.

However, the following information may be of some help:

For service from 1939 onwards, the "Forces Reunited" web-site at this address may be useful:
http://www.forcesreunited.org.uk/

Details on obtaining service records appear below:

ROYAL NAVY PERSONNEL RECORDS

The records of British RN personnel are held at three different locations, depending primarily on the time when a person entered or served in the Navy or an auxiliary service.

1. MoD. Ministry of Defence,
CS(RM)2A,
Bourne Avenue,
Hayes,
Middlesex UB3 1RF,
England

2. Centurion. Naval Pay & Pensions (Accounts), Centurion Building, Grange Road, Gosport, Hampshire PO13 9XA England

In both of the above archives, only written enquiries from next-of-kin are accepted, and a search fee is charged. There is an ongoing process of moving selected records from these locations to:

3. PRO. The Public Record Office,
Kew,
Richmond,
Surrey TW9 4DU
England

http://www.pro.gov.uk/

It is not possible to search PRO documents online, and the PRO does not undertake research on behalf of individuals. To access the documents held at the PRO one must either go there in person and obtain an entrance ticket, or employ a professional researcher to do the work for you. For more information on this, start at:

http://www.pro.gov.uk/readers/default.htm

PERSONNEL RECORDS

RN Ratings. Ratings who served in WW1 or before are at PRO, unless they continued in service beyond 1929. The latter, plus those who entered between 1924-1930 at MoD. Those who entered after these periods at HMS Centurion.

ROYAL NAVY MEDALS

For information on medals awarded to RN personnel in recent years (1939 to the present time) write to

RN Medal Office,
Room 3105,
Centurion Building,
Grange Road,
Gosport,
Hampshire PO13 9XA
England

USING THE RECORDS

For personnel whose records are still held at the MoD and HMS Centurion, enquiries must be sent in writing to the appropriate address, as given above. In both cases, it is stated that they only accept enquiries from next-of-kin or first generation descendants and these record archives charge a search fee.

In the case of records held at the Public Record Office, the PRO will not undertake to search for records. For serious research, they have recently published a detailed guide to their records, to the ranks and ratings in the RN at different periods, and to the various reserves and auxiliary services in:

Naval Records for Genealogists, by N.A.M. Rodger. Public Record Office Handbook No. 22 PRO Publications, Kew, 1998. ISBN 1 873 162 588

On-line help is also available from the PRO's own website. The PRO's Records Information Leaflet No. 2 (Admiralty Records as Sources for Biography and Genealogy) is accessible on-line. Go via:

http://www.pro.gov.uk/leaflets/default.htm

Other leaflets about records of Royal Marines, Prisoners-of-War, Nurses, Medals and Naval matters in general are listed at:

http://www.pro.gov.uk/leaflets/riindex.htm.

The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts maintains a Register of Archives. For a list of archives related to the armed services of Britain, including Royal Navy archives, go to:

http://www.hmc.gov.uk/sheets/army8.html

PRINTED SOURCES

The Navy List is held at most large reference libraries, including the National Maritime Museum's Library at Greenwich and the new Admiralty Library section at the RN Museum at Portsmouth. It is a good way of tracing an officer's career as each volume lists all officers' ranks and ships. It has been published regularly since 1814.

The RN Museum at Portsmouth also holds in its archives the personal papers of some individual officers and seamen.

Contacting old shipmates: the monthly magazine Navy News regularly publishes a page for Reunions, "Calling Old Shipmates" and other requests for information. Write to:

The Editor, Navy News, Leviathan Block, HMS NELSON, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3HH, England. Tel: +44 (0)1705-294228.

The Links Page :

As the range of our activities is so diverse, we have a number of different websites. The site you are currently viewing concentrates on the three non-fiction books written by Geoffrey Miller, dealing with British Naval Policy in the Mediterranean from 1900 to 1915. The main Flamborough Manor site focuses primarily on accommodation but has brief details of all our other activities. To allow for more information to be presented on these other activities, there are other self-contained web-sites. All our web-sites have a LINKS page in common, which allows for easy navigation between the various sites. To find out where you are, or to return to the main site, simply go to the LINKS page.

HMS Berwick : Original artwork © 2004 Geoffrey Miller
HMS Berwick
[Original artwork © 2004 Geoffrey Miller]

Geoffrey Miller can be contacted by:

Telephone or FAX: 01262 850943 [International: +44 1262 850943]
Postal address: The Manor House,
Flamborough,
Bridlington,
East Riding of Yorkshire, YO15 1PD
United Kingdom.
E-mail: gm@navalhistory.co.uk

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Copyright © 1995-2013. Please note that all rights are reserved and that no part of this publication may be further reproduced by any means without the prior permission of the author, Geoffrey Miller, who has asserted his right in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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THE [AMERICAN] JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY

One may not always follow the author to the full extent of his interpretation, but at the very least he has demonstrated that [Admiral] Kerr would have had some difficult questions to answer … Miller is so skilful in analyzing the numerous errors on the British and French side that facilitated the escape of the Germans … this first volume on the Goeben episode will be indispensable for future naval historians

Copyright © 1995-2013.
Please note that all rights are reserved and that no part of this publication may be further reproduced by any means without the prior permission of the author, Geoffrey Miller, who has asserted his right in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.