Advice Please re National Archives at Kew - Merchant Navy records

[brynjon]

Here is the copy I mentioned. Took my unskilled mind a while to bring it under 500kb

[HMac]

He was a proud, good, honest and quiet man to the end.

And his family should be the proud owner of his well deserved medals.

It annoys me no end to hear that your enquiry re the medals was dismissed out of hand. Yes, you do need to begin at Cardiff though but we will advise you how you should go about it and assuming we can get the required documents from Kew his next of kin will get those medals.

You were ripped off by your 'researcher', unfortunately but if it is any consolation many years ago It happened to me too. I have yet to meet a better MN researcher on or offline than SW so you can take his advice to the bank.

However, I am now a little confused. That document is an army record - attestation for the Royal Artillery!!   


Regards
Hugh

[brynjon]

Lol - and after the stress I had trying to mimimise it (Something else I have learned so all not lost).
I did see it mentioned ARMY but I assumed it was a cross over. The age limit threw me a bit esp for the MN. I am not sure where I got it from. I assume this was one of my father's contributions. I think we can dismiss this out of hand as I have no recollection of him being in the army.

[HMac]

No don't dismiss it yet.

This James Herbert Clark was discharged from the army [due to being beyond the age limit in 1942]. He could have then joined the MN.

Regards
Hugh

[brynjon]

Hi Hugh - I think I will need to confer with my aunt and uncle. My rationale for initial dismissal is that the family had been a seafaring one since the 18th century (as far back as I have reached thus far). There was talk of a relative being a Japanese POW but that story was when I was in junior school. I did find a black coloured cross medal in a wardrobe drawer around the same time (late 60's), though I was told never to ask. A now deceased uncle took ownership of the house and all its contents though that is a different story. I do not know the provenance of that medal or where it went though I assume army.

[ScouseBoy]

Is it worth contacting the Army medals office?

[Romilly]

Brynjon, - having read this thread, - just wanted to say, - don't give up with this!

A while back, I went round the houses, (and back:-) trying to track down my late Uncle's MN Records. Eventually, - and only after much help from Seaweed and HMac on here, I was able to locate his CR10 at the NA. This was not available on the NA Site, and was only located after visiting in person and going through the records manually. I now know what my Uncle actually did during WW2, - and it did not match up to family anecdotes and his brother's recollections!

Best of Luck with your search, Romilly.

[HMac]

Hi Bryn,
I would keep an open mind at the moment but yes, check with your family. Probably best to concentrate on the MN records first anyway.

Romilly makes a good point about family lore. Leave it open until you can officially rule it out.

Regards
Hugh

[brynjon]

Hi Romilly - thanks for your words of support - "big granda" as he was to me was a great part of my life. He was a man of few words but wise. He always suffered in silence - after leaving school I used to go to work with him daily until his untimely death days prior to my 18th birthday. I will do as much as I can to get to the bottom of whatever mysteries are there to unfold. I should have done it years ago, however, life often gets in the way of these things. Too late to ask those questions that even his children did not ask. I have now discovered a large cache of photos few with identification on them. Several maritime figures which were posted a while ago.

Anyway back to the topic in hand. - I have just gone through FindMyPast and Ancestry searches. There was another JH Clark born 1908 in London area and I believe that discharge book entry must relate to him.

I will keep digging and see where I get.

Many thanks to you all. Cheers - Bryn