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Thanks very much for the advice.

Interestingly, JRPH's service number is NOT included on his RNR Discharge Certificate, which rather surprised me.  I'd looked for it previously there but the only unique number, apart from his personal details, is the certifciate number itself which is written in the same hand.

However, I have found his service number and rating at the time of award inscribed on the rim of his RNR Long Service & Good Conduct Medal.  On the basis of award for 15 years' service, with mobilised time of 4 1/2 years counting double, I estimate that he was probably eligible for the medal some time in 1919, not too long after his demobilisation from active duty.

As he was a merchant seaman, at least at the time of his RNR enrollment in 1908, I'm surprised that his RNR Discharge Certificate didn't include a record of his MN Discharge Book Number, the equivalent of a naval service number.  However, I'm not sure when Discharge Books were formally introduced in the MN.

No, I'm very new to this sort of thing and don't know about obtaining documents from TNA.

I would be most interested in obtaining his RNR records, particularly those covering his mobilised WWI service.  I recall my grandfather telling me that he was enrolled as a "Devonport" rating, rather than Portsmouth or Chatham, but I'm not sure if that is relevant or helpful to identifying or obtaining the records.

I have a photograph of the crew of the s.s. Karamea taken in Sydney, NSW, on 16th January 1911 which includes JRPH.  'Karamea' was owned by Shaw, Saville and Albion and registered in Southampton.  That is the reason I know he was serving in the MN in 1911.  Interestingly, there's a shoal patch in the Capricorn Channel at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef named 'Karamea Bank'.  I checked that with the RN Hydrographic Office in Taunton many years ago and was told the bank was reported by, and named for, a later SS&A ship of the same name.         

In addition, I'd like to obtain my father's army service records from WWII.  I imagine that should be somewhat easier as I would expect that those records are more likely to have survived.  In addition, I have my father's army service number, which is probably a better starting point.   

Jean,

John RP Harris was my grandfather, which was why I recognised the description 'Leading Seaman RNR / Journeyman Shiprigger' immediately in connection with HMS Duke of Cornwall.

I have a family tree covering JRPH and his siblings which shows your grandmother, Eleanor, to be his elder sister by 2 years.  I can't comment about the possibility of the John you met being him, or the son of JRPH's brother Thomas.  The only comment I can offer is that my grandfather was always known as "Jack" to his contemporaries and I never heard my grandmother address him, or refer to him, by any other name than "Jack".

I can state categorically that he's not the man you mention in an earlier post as being a Leading Shipwright in Simonstown.  My grandfather was not a shipwright by trade.  I have photographic evidence of him serving in the Merchant Navy in 1911, rather than the Royal Navy.